Maximilian Schaefer, MD

Dr. Maximilian Schaefer is a clinician scientist and clinical researcher who received is MD from Heinrich-Heine University in Duesseldorf, Germany and completed his residency training at Duesseldorf University Hospital. Dr. Schaefer joined the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine in 2019 and became the Director of Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence and the Director of the Thoracic Anesthesia Division in 2022. He is Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. In addition to his clinical work for patients undergoing lung surgery, Dr. Schaefer delivers anesthesia care for patients undergoing liver transplantation and complex vascular surgery.

Dr. Schaefer’s scientific work centers around avoiding lung injury during mechanical ventilation in the operating room and the intensive care unit and he is an internationally renowned expert in the field. Specifically, Dr. Schaefer investigates strategies for individualizing mechanical ventilation such as the mechanical power. His lab, the Perioperative Outcomes lab, has specialized in leveraging highly granular, real-world data to improve care of patients undergoing anesthesia or critical care. The lab employs comprehensive statistical modeling to account for bias and confounding. In addition, the Perioperative Outcomes Lab conducts prospective physiological as well as randomized trials to support knowledge gained from observational studies. These include advanced techniques to investigate physiological concepts in a clinical setting such as electrical impedance tomography and esophageal manometry. Current trials led by Dr. Schaefer investigate atelectasis formation depending on the inspiratory oxygen concentration at the end of anesthesia, the use of high-flow nasal oxygen for advanced endoscopies and strategies for individualizing positive end-expiratory pressure in the operating room.

In addition, Dr. Schaefer has extensively investigated strategies to avoid perioperative delirium, a devastating complication after surgery and anesthesia. Dr. Schaefer has published over 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts, editorials, book chapters and reviews in leading journals in the fields of Anesthesia and Critical Care. His lab has won an abundance of awards for their research at national and international conferences. Dr. Schaefer is mentoring numerous medical students, research fellows and residents, the latter in the course of the Loring Scholarship at BIDMC. As Director of CARE, Dr. Schaefer oversees support for a variety of funded and unfunded projects conducted by faculty in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine.