Michelle M. Ramirez, MD

My interest in medicine and, more specifically pediatrics, began when I was 4 years old and found myself hospitalized and requiring surgery. The physicians, nurses, and other hospital staff I met during my stay assuaged my fears and concerns and made me feel at ease as I processed everything that it meant to be hospitalized as a child. From that day forward, there was no teddy bear or pet that did not become my “patient.”

Helping children and their families navigate through the difficulties that come when facing acute illness and surgery is truly an honor. As a pediatric and cardiac intensivist, I am able to care for the sickest children in the hospital.

From birth through adolescence, from congenital heart disease to acute respiratory failure, the team approach at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone allows me to care for the full spectrum of pediatric pathologies. Our consultants include surgeons, pulmonologists, nephrologists and beyond: every subspecialty is available at NYU Langone, to help co-manage critically ill children and offer the highest level of care and lifesaving therapies, including extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and solid organ transplantation.

I am very active in the Society of Critical Care Medicine, where I have given numerous talks and presentations, in addition to chairing committees. For several years, I have received the society’s presidential citation, an award given to members who have made outstanding contributions to the organization.

I am committed to the education of our future physicians and have directed the Pediatric Fundamental Critical Care Support course for over a decade. This has become essential for preparing and teaching those who are not intensive care doctors how to manage and stabilize critically ill children.

My research interests have resulted in multiple journal articles on a variety of cardiac and critical care–related topics, including acute kidney injury and thrombus prevention in the intensive care unit (ICU). In addition, I have the privilege of sitting in one of the four boards of the institution’s Internal Review Board (IRB), allowing me to review and approve a myriad of studies being conducted at our medical center.