Keynote Speaker

Benjamin S. Abella, MD, MPhil

Penn Medicine

Director, Center for Resuscitation Science Vice Chair for Research, Emergency Medicine Medical Director, Penn Acute Research Collaboration William G. Baxt, M.D. Professor in Emergency Medicine Professor of Emergency Medicine in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Professor of Emergency Medicine in Medicine (Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care)

Keynote Address: “The Science of CPR: How Research Can Save Lives From Cardiac Arrest”

Dr. Benjamin Abella, the William G. Baxt Professor of Emergency Medicine, serves as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Center for Resuscitation Science, one of the few centers nationwide that is dedicated to cardiac arrest and CPR research, education and training. In the latter role, he has led numerous clinical studies on cardiac arrest and post-arrest care, having authored over 250 published works including in high impact journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, and Circulation. Dr. Abella was among the first to demonstrate that CPR could be recorded quantitatively in clinical studies to improve outcomes, a finding that help facilitate the dissemination of CPR-sensing technologies globally. His work has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health for nearly two decades; he has also received research funding from the Department of Defense, the Doris Duke Foundation, and other nonprofit and industry sources. Dr. Abella has served as Chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) national 3CPR Council and has authored international guidelines for CPR training through his work with the AHA. He has been elected a Fellow of the AHA and a Fellow of the European Resuscitation Council. He is the emergency care and CPR consultant to the National Basketball Association, and has worked with the United States Air Force in the development of post-arrest care protocols. He is currently a physician advisor on the Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro Transition Team focused on emergency care topics.