Lewis Romer, MD
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Highlights
Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Lewis Romer
Primary Academic Title
Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
Background
Lew Romer has been an attending physician in the PICU since 2000. He is also a Co-Leader of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Program. As a senior faculty member in the PICU, Dr. Romer ensures that patients receive timely and outstanding quality of care. He oversees a patient’s entire care team, which includes fellows, junior faculty, residents, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and Child Life specialists. He also forms treatment plans collaboratively with colleagues and other consultants in the treatment of pediatric patients with pulmonary hypertension.
Dr. Romer has a research program that focuses on the study of endothelial cells – the cells that line all blood vessels. Endothelial cells are finely tuned to regulate the delivery of nutrients to cells, to serve as a barrier between the bloodstream and the tissues that make up all organ systems, and to ensure the unimpeded supply of blood flow. His laboratory team investigates endothelial cell adhesion and signaling during health and disease and works on tissue engineering blood vessels for both regenerative medicine and diagnostic drug-testing applications. Understanding how to optimize blood vessel function is a ubiquitous theme in the care of patients with critical illness. His work will increase our knowledge of how to improve blood vessel function, both through medications that regulate vessel caliber and by engineering new blood vessels that can increase blood supply to organs at-risk. He is also involved in research efforts to examine specific pharmacotherapies for pulmonary hypertension in children.
Dr. Romer sees himself as both a micro- and macro-environmentalist. On the micro-scale, he studies the matrix environment in which cells live and how it changes the behavior and effectiveness of cells that form blood vessels. This microenvironment changes as a result of disease and disease therapy. He hopes to restore this microenvironment to normality or even to a state of super-normal potential for regeneration. On the macro scale, he is interested in creating a supportive educational environment for all caregivers in the PICU who must deal with extremely stressful situations. He believes that if we can create optimal educational tools and environmental cues for trainees and practitioners, we can better equip them to deal with the extremely challenging events that occur in the PICU. This will enable clinicians to focus better and provide better care.
In his job, Dr. Romer enjoys taking care of children and their families and coordinating the team effort that it requires. He also enjoys teaching, scientific and translational research, and helping to foster the professional development of colleagues. When he is away from work, he enjoys Jewish studies, community service, thinking about the challenges that as yet have no answers, drawing, painting, bicycling, and making music.
Dr. Romer attended Dartmouth College for undergraduate studies and then Dartmouth Medical School. He earned his MD in 1981 and went on to receive pediatric training at the University of Utah Primary Children’s Hospital. After a three-year stint in private practice as a general pediatrician/ NICU director/ PICU co-director/ and children’s air and ground transport service director in Northern Lower Michigan, he did a fellowship in pediatric critical care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (1987-1989) and a research fellowship in integrin-mediated adhesion and signaling at the Wistar Institute (1989-1990). His early years as a journeyman faculty investigator were spent in the lab of Professor Keith Burridge at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while Dr. Romer served as the Division Chief and Fellowship Director for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.
Centers and Institutes
- Cell Dynamics, Center for
- Global Health Faculty, Center for
- Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Additional Academic Titles
Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Cell Biology
Research Interests
Advocacy and Communication in the PICU, Cytoskeletal biology, Endothelial cell adhesion, Postoperative management following pediatric cardiac surgery, Responses of vascular systems to disease and injury, Vascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Lab Website
Lew Romer - Lab Website
Research Summary
Dr. Romer is a vascular biologist. His research focuses on responses of vascular systems to disease and injury. He has been working with a team of scientists to discover new therapies for treating cardiovascular disease that could be used in conjunction with statins and exercise.
Selected Publications
Jin, Q., Bhatta, A., Pagaduan, J.P., Chen, X., West-Foyle, H., Liu, J., Hou, A., Berkowitz, D., Kuo, S.C., Askin. F.B., Nguyen, T.D., Gracias, D.H.*, Romer, L.H.* Biomimetic human small muscular pulmonary arteries. Science Advances, Mar 25;6(13):eaaz2598, 2020. PMID: 32232160 PMCID: PMC7096158 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz2598
Lemmon, C.A. and Romer, L.H. A predictive model of cell traction forces based on cell geometry. Biophysical Journal. Nov 3;99(9):L78-80, 2010. PMID: 21044567 PMCID: PMC2966001 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2010.09.024
Pahapale, G.P., Tao, J., Nikolic, M., Gao, S., Scarcelli, G., Sun, S., Romer, L.H.*, Gracias, D.H.* Directing Multicellular Organization by Varying the Aspect Ratio of Soft Hydrogel Microwells. Advanced Science, Accepted, March 2022
Pandey, D., Nomura, Y., 2 , Rossberg, M.C., Hori, D., Bhatta, A., Keceli, G., Leucker, T., Santhanam, L., Shimoda, L., Berkowitz, D., Romer, L. Hypoxia Triggers SENP1 (Sentrin-Specific Protease 1) Modulation of KLF15 (Kruppel-Like Factor 15) and Transcriptional Regulation of Arg2 (Arginase 2) in Pulmonary Endothelium, Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Apr;38(4):913-926, 2018. PMID: 29472234 PMCID: PMC6738933 DOI: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.117.310660
Unegbu C, Noje C, Coulson JD, Segal JB, Romer L. Pulmonary Hypertension Therapy and a Systematic Review of Efficacy and Safety of PDE-5 Inhibitors. Pediatrics. Mar;139(3):e20161450, 2017. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2016-1450. PMID: 28235796
Honors
- Selection of work by the Faculty of 1000 (F1000) November 11, 2010, top 2% of publications in biology, for Biophys J 2010 Nov 3
- Selection of work among the most influential research contributions from the Department of ACCM at JHU-SOM in 2015 - publication on the SAAA website
- America's Best Doctors, 1/1/07
- Senior International Fellowship, NIH Fogarty International Center, 1/1/99
- Michael Visiting Professorship, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, 1/1/99
- Physician's Recognition Award, American Medical Association, 1/1/98
- Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship Award, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 1/1/95
- Davis Award, American Lung Association, NC Chapter, 1/1/94
- University of North Carolina nominee for competition for Pew Scholars Program, 1/1/92
- Junior Faculty Development Award, University of North Carolina, 1/1/91
- Ciba Award for Community Service, Dartmouth Medical School, 1/1/81
- Alpha Omega Alpha, Dartmouth Medical School, 1/1/81
- Phi Beta Kappa, Dartmouth College, 1/1/77
- Summa Cum Laude, Dartmouth College, 1/1/77
- Senior Fellowship for research and thesis work in medieval studies, Dartmouth College, 1/1/76
- Rufus Choate Scholar, Dartmouth College, 1/1/74
Memberships
- Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Society of Cell Biology
- Association of University Anesthesiologists
- Society of Critical Care Medicine
- American Heart Association (Atherosclerosis and Basic Science Councils)
Professional Activities
- Acta Biomaterialia, Ad hoc reviewer
- American Board of Pediatrics, Subspecialty Board, Critical Care Medicine renewal
- American Heart Association, Grant reviewer, 1/1/05
- Biophysical Journal, former Editorial Board Member
- Biophysical Journal, Ad hoc reviewer
- Circulation Research, Ad hoc reviewer
- Experimental Cell Research, Ad hoc reviewer
- Jeffress Memorial Trust and the Virginia Academy of Science, Grant reviewer, 1/1/98
- Journal of Cell Biology, Ad hoc reviewer
- Journal of Cell Science, Ad hoc reviewer
- National Science Foundation, Grant reviewer, 1/1/00
- Pediatric Blood and Cancer, Ad hoc reviewer
- Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Ad hoc reviewer
- Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Network (PPHNet), JHU Representative
- Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Network (PPHNet), Co-Chair, Clinical Trials Committee
- Surviving Sepsis Campaign of the Society for Critical Care Medicine and the European Society, Guidelines Committee
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Parental Authority Committee, 1/1/03
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Pediatric Burn Center Committee, 1/1/04
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Pediatric Nutrition Advisory Committee, 1/1/03
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Pediatric Trauma Committee, 1/1/04
- The Wellcome Trust, Grant reviewer, 1/1/99
Locations
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital
- 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21287
- phone: 410-955-5000
- fax: 410-955-5001
Expertise
Education
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Fellowship, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 1989University of Utah Health
Residency, Pediatrics, 1984Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
Medical Education, MD, 1981Board Certifications
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
American Board of Pediatrics, 1992Pediatrics
American Board of Pediatrics, 1985Insurance
- Aetna
- CareFirst
- Cigna
- First Health
- Geisinger Health Plan
- HealthSmart/Accel
- Humana
- Johns Hopkins Health Plans
- MultiPlan
- Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
- Point Comfort Underwriters
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- UnitedHealthcare
- Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)