Brandon Oto, PA-C, FCCM, is a physician assistant at Bridgeport Hospital, which is a member of Yale New Haven Health in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. He joined the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) in 2017 and is currently the chair of the Accreditation and Learning Strategies Committee and a member of the ICU Liberation Committee. You can find him practicing photography, woodworking, or podcasting when he is not busy with critical care. Learn more about Mr. Oto’s love for critical care and his viewpoints about the future of the field.
How did you get into critical care?
After a career in emergency medical services, I transitioned to physician assistant school and found the intensive care unit was the only place I could find consistently high acuity.
What advice do you have for those starting their critical care careers?
Be great at everything, but find a niche to excel at! We want you to teach us about the things only you know.
Why do you love being in critical care?
Critical care provides the opportunity to stabilize the sickest patients, directly manipulate their physiology, engage with the extremes of the human condition, and combine medical acumen, procedural therapies, and palliative care.
What are the top advances in critical care since you started your career?
The solidification of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) as a bedside tool
What do you see as the most challenging issue facing critical care?
The need to separate broad syndromes like sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and delirium into the heterogeneous phenotypes that constitute them if we are ever to make additional progress in understanding their characteristics and developing specific therapies
What industry trends excite you about the future?
Non-culture-based methods for identifying infection and AI as a diagnostic aid
What do you love about SCCM membership?
The Society's broad, multiprofessional nature allows clinicians from all backgrounds to focus on critical care without being distracted by their differences.
Connect with @Brandon Oto on SCCM Connect.