Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Dr. Christos Lazaridis is a neurointensivist, focusing on advanced monitoring and management of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). He is also the author/co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of multimodality neuromonitoring, neurotrauma critical care, ethics and neurocritical care decision making.
For the last several years, Dr. Lazaridis has engaged with the Latin American Brain Injury Consortium (LABIC) and other Latin American investigators in developing clinical practice, education, and research programs in neurotrauma. Latin America has among the highest incidence of head injury worldwide, and thus it is important to learn from local practitioners and researchers and share knowledge across borders to better address this burden. In 2022, the Latin American Neurocritical Care Society Conference was held in Santiago, Chile. The University of Chicago neurocritical care group hosted a session that discussed different paradigms of severe TBI management and how they fit across different geographical and resource settings. Additionally, the concept of pre-emptive decompressive craniectomy was discussed as an important subject for further research and collaboration. Planning for next year’s conference in Quito, Ecuador is already underway continuing the collaboration between University of Chicago neurotrauma and colleagues in Latin America.
Q: Why is international collaboration important in your field?
A: Traumatic brain injury is a highly prevalent and serious condition all around the world. At the same time, there are many important unanswered clinical questions in the management of TBI. Local context, resources and paradigms of care differ across regions. Working together makes us smarter, allows us to answer questions more effectively, and provides the means for improving care across borders.
Q: What has interested or surprised you most in building your international collaborations?
A: A very positive part of this work has been the openness and willingness of people to share their experiences, collaborate, and learn from each other. Intellectually, it has been extremely stimulating to hear new perspectives from people trying to answer the same questions from various angles, against different obstacles, and with different means.