The UAB Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine is a recognized leader in the fields of clinical anesthesia, graduate and postgraduate education, and scientific inquiry through basic and translational research.

The department employs more than 150 faculty members involved in the delivery of patient care and research activities, more than 90 residents and fellows, and more than 70 staff members.

Dr. Dan E. Berkowitz joined the department as the department chair on January 2, 2019. He comes to UAB after 25 years at the John Hopkins School of Medicine, where he served as the vice chair for research in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. Berkowitz earned his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1984. After his medical internship at Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg and fellowship in Human Genetics, he migrated to the United States in 1987. He completed his anesthesia residency and fellowship in cardiac anesthesia at Duke University Medical Center. Berkowitz subsequently joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is also a member of several professional organizations, including the American Physiological Society, the Association of University Anesthesiologists and the Society for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists.

Clinically, the department is divided into seven divisions based on anesthesiology subspecialty. Anesthetizing sites include operating and procedure room locations within the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center, Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital, The Kirklin Clinic, University Hospital, and UAB Highlands Hospital.

The department consistently ranks in the top clinical departments of anesthesiology in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Key areas of research focus include free radical biology, inflammatory diseases, acute lung injury, cardioprotective effects of alcohol, and mechanisms and treatment of pain.

The department is responsible for the only anesthesiology residency program in Alabama. Accredited fellowships are offered in cardiothoracic anesthesiology, critical care medicine, obstetric anesthesiology, pain medicine, and pediatric anesthesiology. In addition, it offers fellowships in two unaccredited subspecialty areas: regional anesthesiology and trauma anesthesiology.