ASM 2025 Speakers

Fred Mihm is Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University Medical and has been on the faculty at Stanford since 1979

His major area of interest is critical care medicine, regional anaesthesia and the care of complex medical patients requiring high-risk anaesthetics and surgery. He has a particular interest in a rare, life-threatening endocrine tumor (pheochromocytoma) and has cared for more than 300 patients with this condition.

After medical school at Saint Louis University, postgraduate training followed in internal medicine at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine campus.

He changed tracks into anaesthesiology at Stanford University and finished with a fellowship in critical care medicine at Stanford and Harvard Universities. He has held various leadership positions within the Anesthesia Department, including; Residency Program Director, CCM Fellowship Program Director, Division Chief of Critical Care Medicine and Co-Medical Director of the intensive care units at Stanford University Medical Center.

He has published more than 100 articles or book chapters in areas of cardiopulmonary monitoring, regional anaesthesia and the preoperative care of pheochromocytoma patients.

Aside from his routine academic duties, he has enjoyed volunteering at the San Francisco and San Diego Zoos and the Gorilla Foundation (Woodside, California) for more than 40 years. He has assisted in more than 100 anaesthetics involving many rare and exotic animal species (gorillas, giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants). His favourite animal patient was Koko, the gorilla who knew sign language.

Dr Mihm has a passion for global health missions. On many missions he has provided anaesthesia for life-changing plastic/reconstructive surgery for the poor.

Some excursions have been entirely educational. He has completed 50 trips (two years total) to various Central/South American countries, Africa, and Southeast Asia. His most recent trips were to Honduras, Rwanda, Guatemala, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Ethiopia.

These experiences provide a poignant connection with the rest of the real world. They are a powerful opportunity to give to those patients who can never repay and equip low-resourced providers with practical, bedside education.