Dr. Fuhrman was a 1985-1988 fellow in our Pediatric CCM program at the University of Pittsburgh and then served on the Children’s Hospital faculty before moving to Buffalo.  The title of his lecture was “Pandemic Influenza: Hospitals in a Surge.”  He gave a fascinating talk about efforts to prepare for pandemic influenza, highlighting what may be tragic shortages in equipment and personnel needed to manage critically ill patients.  Dr. Fuhrman noted that the responsibility to care for the most severely ill patients and to mitigate mortality in a pandemic will fall to intensivists.  He concluded by emphasizing that efforts toward preparedness have largely focused on other areas of the health care system and that intensivists must become deeply involved.