Researcher Spotlight: Siva Bhavani

What is your professional background?
I am a pulmonary and critical care physician-scientist focused on sepsis research. I completed my internal medicine residency training at Baylor College of Medicine and my pulmonary critical care fellowship training at University of Chicago. During my time on the T32 training program, I received my MS in Public Health Sciences at University of Chicago and developed my foundation in biostatistics and data science. 

In what division do you work, and who is your mentor?
I work in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. My primary mentor is Dr. Craig Coopersmith in the Department of Surgery.  

Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
My research focuses on a problem that has hindered sepsis management for decades: How do we move from a one-size-fits-all approach to a precision medicine approach to treating sepsis? The proposed solution is to break apart the heterogenous syndrome of sepsis into clinically relevant subphenotypes that may have different responses to different treatments. Specifically, I apply machine learning approaches to longitudinal vital signs to identify these subphenotypes. Since my research uses the simple bedside measurement of vital signs, the resulting subphenotypes could be very generalizable and could be an important step in the path towards the precision treatment of sepsis. 

What do you like most about Emory?
I like the expansive research environment at Emory University as this provides lots of opportunities for collaboration. I had a specific methodology I wanted to use for a research study, I googled the methodology and found three people at Emory working on similar algorithms.  

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
My all-time favorite movie is ‘The Rock,’ and current favorite TV show is ‘Ozark.’  

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’m a singer/songwriter and play the guitar and I’m always looking for people to jam with!  

What is a fun fact about you?
I used to volunteer as a hospital magician and still love performing magic for anyone who happens to ask!