Dr. Paul Suratt Retires

Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
DR. PAUL M. SURATT, LONG-TIME PULMONARY FACULTY MEMBER, RETIRES

Paul M. Suratt, MD, a member of the faculty in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine for four decades, retired in June 2014. Dr. Suratt earned his medical degree from Case Western Research University in 1970, and completed both an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in pulmonary diseases at UVA. He joined the UVA faculty and the division in 1974, was promoted to associate professor in 1980 and was elected in 1988 as the John L. Guerrant Professor of Internal Medicine. He held the chair until his retirement.

Dr. Suratt has served the division and UVA in many roles, including as medical director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, and, most notably, as medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center, which he founded at UVA.

His national activities included:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Review Committee for Specialized Center for Sleep and Respiration
• NIH Review Committee for General Clinical Research Center
• Editorial board for Journal of Applied Physiology
• Multiple other ad hoc review committees for the NIH

Dr. Suratt founded the American Sleep Apnea Association and served at its president in 1993. He launched the International Symposium of Sleep and Respiration in Banff in 1989, and served on its organizing and steering committees since. He was president of the Albemarle Medical Society from 2001 to 2002.

Dr. Suratt authored 98 publications in peer-reviewed journals and three books. His work has been cited excluding self-citation 3,766 times, with an H-index of 32. His work included:

• The main comprehensive study in the literature identifying the risks and side-effects of fiberoptic bronchoscopy.
• Elucidating the role of narrowing of the upper airway in obstructive sleep apnea, and the impact of weight loss on reversing sleep apnea syndrome.
• Identifying the risk of increased automobile crashes in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and the impact of treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on reduction of the automobile accidents in sleep apnea.

At his retirement celebration at Pavilion VI on August 21, 2014, words from Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Dugald Stewart were read in celebration of Dr. Suratt’s demeanor while on Grounds at the University of Virginia:

“Besides the first degree of eminence in science, a professor with us must be of sober and correct morals & habits, having the talent of communicating his knowledge with facility, and of an accommodating and peaceable temper. The latter is all important for the harmony of the institution.”