Kenneth Remy, MD

About

Kenneth E. Remy, MD, is a tenure track Associate Professor and NIH-funded physician-scientist in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Pathology and Biochemistry in the Divisions of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. He serves as Director of the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine Research and Director for Critical Care Research in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Remy is the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine and the Inaugural Director of the Blood, Heart, Lung, and Immunology Research Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals.

Previously, Dr. Remy was an Associate Professor at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri) in the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. At Washington University, Dr. Remy successfully completed the Academic Medical Leadership Program for Physicians and Scientists in the School of Medicine, the Olin Business School and BJC HealthCare.

Dr. Remy is an international expert in adult and pediatric sepsis, COVID-19 and global health. He serves as the incoming chair of the Bloodnet group of the PALISI network, an expert on the International Surviving Sepsis Guidelines Committee, and lead for the international pediatric transfusion guidelines. Dr. Remy is a senior editor-in-chief of Critical Care Medicine, associate editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, associate editor of Critical Care Explorations, senior editor of Frontiers in Pediatrics and senior editor of Innate Immunity.

As an adult and pediatric critical care physician, Dr. Remy’s laboratory is focused on two areas: heme-based trafficking and signaling in immune dysregulation in the context of intravascular hemolysis diseases (COVID-19, sepsis, malaria, sickle cell disease, thalassemia) and after red blood cell transfusion; and real-time immunophenotyping of hypoinflammatory and hypoinflammatory states to identify timing for immunoadjuvant therapies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Remy cared for over 2,000 patients in the adult and pediatric ICU while pivoting his laboratory activities to understanding the evolution of the disease in both a hematologic and immune functional approach.

Dr. Remy, in collaboration with Dr. Richard Hotchkiss, was among the first researchers in world to demonstrate a COVID-19 immunosuppressive phenotype showing significant T cell exhaustion in patients with critical illness. His first manuscript on care of adults in the pediatric ICU was a featured article in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. He has been featured on a number of local and international news stations and outlets, including CNN, CBS Evening News, BBC News, People, NBC News, Reuters and USA Today, on his experiences during this pandemic, speaking on the immunologic consequences of disease, pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), public health measures and schools, and potential therapies for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr. Remy sits on a number of national and international task forces in sepsis and COVID, including the NIH, BARDA, FDA and CDC. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, textbook chapters and invited commentaries. He is the previous chair of the basic and translational science research section and chair of the entire research section for the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the largest society for critical care practitioners in the world, with over 25,000 members. In addition, he is the founding member and former immunology chair of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators Network. Dr. Remy also holds key leadership positions in many other organizations, including serving on the executive committee of SCCM’s Research section and as a member-at-large for the SCCM’s Internal Medicine section.

Dr. Remy has been honored as a fellow in the American College of Critical Care Medicine and a fellow in the Society of Pediatric Research. He earned his Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College and master’s degrees from Duke University (clinical research) and Washington University (translational research, with a focus in immunology). He completed dual residencies in internal medicine and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine/University Hospitals/University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital (Cleveland, Ohio); a pediatric critical care fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University (New York City, New York); and an adult critical care fellowship at National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland). He is quadruple boarded in each of these specialties.

In addition, Dr. Remy is formally trained in global health and emergency and disaster preparedness, and he holds a certificate of clinical research from the National Institutes of Health. He is also the Medical Director (ICU captain) for Heart Care International’s Medical Missions and the Global Health Chair for the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) Network. Dr. Remy co-founded the first-in-world Global Health Critical Care Fellowship in Blantyre Malawi in 2017 and remains a co-fellowship director.

Dr. Remy has clinical interests in both adults and children in bioethics, international health, humor therapy and palliative care. Previous research has been in calcium-activated chloride channels in airway smooth muscle and in therapeutics to bacillus anthracis-induced shock.