Dr. Bernard currently serves as a Director on ICA’s Board of Directors.
In his current roles as Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research, Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and principal investigator of Vanderbilt’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), Dr. Bernard oversees a multifaceted translational research center.
Additionally, Dr. Bernard’s also directs his own research, focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Because of his expertise in this area, Dr. Bernard has been called upon to serve in an advisory capacity by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and chairs the steering committee for the NHLBI’s ARDS Clinical Trials Network.
Internationally, Dr. Bernard provides his expertise to physician scientists via invited lectures and through his role as advisor to global companies and organizations involved in health care, which includes advisory board service to the non-profit International Sepsis Forum. He was primary investigator for the Phase III PROWESS trial of rh-Activated Protein C for severe sepsis that eventually led to its becoming the first drug approved by the FDA for this disease. Dr. Bernard is also currently the co-chairman of the steering committee for the NIH National Consortium of CTSAs.
Dr. Bernard graduated with a double major (biology and chemistry) from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha national honor society. Dr. Bernard is a member of the American Association of Physicians and has written or co-authored more than 150 articles, book chapters and editorials.
