History
Edward A. Brunner, MD, PhD
Department Chair, 1971-1996
Dr. Brunner received his MD degree in 1959 and his PhD in Pharmacology in 1962 from Hahneman Medical College. Dr. Brunner completed his anesthesiology residency training at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in 1965. Also in 1965, he completed his postdoctoral training in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Brunner joined Northwestern University’s Department of Anesthesiology in 1966 as Assistant Professor of Anesthesia. In 1971, Dr. Brunner was named Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. In 1980, he was named “Outstanding Graduate of Hahneman Medical College.” Also in 1971, Dr. Brunner became the Residency Program Director, a position he maintained until he retired in 1996.
In 1986, Dr. Brunner was named James E. Eckenhoff Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. In 1992, Dr. Brunner was named “Alumnus of the Year” by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
In 1977, Dr. Brunner published research which proposed a theory for the mechanism by which anesthetic drugs work. He and his research team was the first to suggest that anesthetics work by enhancing the inhibitory process in the central nervous system. Dr. Brunner became interested in research while a doctoral student in Dr. Joseph DiPalma’s Department of Pharmacology at Hahnemann, and has published several hundred scientific papers, many on topics relating to the mechanism of anesthesia. Dr. Brunner spent seven years at Hahnemann as a medical student, intern and doctoral student. While an intern, he made medical history by resuscitating a hypothermic man by performing an open thoracotomy in the Emergency Department and pouring bucketsful of warm tap water into the patient’s open chest cavity to reverse the hypothermia.
Dr. Brunner is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Current Problems in Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Brunner has contributed to the writing of the chapter on anesthesia in Christopher’s Textbook of Surgery, and several chapters in Introduction to Anesthesia and General Thoracic Surgery. He has also contributed to a chapter in Pain Management in Cancer Patients and has written more than 100 scientific articles on the mechanism of action of anesthetic agents and related subjects.
Dr. Brunner has served as President of the Society of Academic Anesthesia Chairmen and the Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists. From 1990-1994, Dr. Brunner was a member of the Committee on Excellence in Research for the American Society of Anesthesiologists. He was a Senior Associate Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiologists from 1967-1992. In 1995, the Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists honored Dr. Brunner with the “Distinguished Service Award”. From 1992-1996, Dr. Brunner was a member of the Board of Appeals Panel for Anesthesiology for ACGME. Dr. Brunner retired in 1996.
