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Dr. Wes Ely
Dr. Wes Ely, associate director of Aging Research for the Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research Educational Center, earned the 2024 Paul B. Magnuson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rehabilitation Research and Development.
Dr. Ely has been conducting VA-funded research for over 20 years to alleviate suffering and enhance the well-being of this nation’s Veterans. With over 600 peer-reviewed manuscripts to his name, Dr. Ely’s studies into dementia, delirium, and other forms of cognitive illness have made the difference for an untold number of Veterans across the country.
Dr. Ely and his colleagues developed the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU, which is the recommended standard of care for all patients on mechanical ventilation by the Society for Critical Care Medicine. He is also the founder and co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Dr. Ely mentors dozens of student doctors at Vanderbilt, and most recently helped establish the Charles M. Vallee Biorepository for Long COVID Science, which seeks to advance medical science’s understanding of Long COVID and its underlying mechanisms by collecting and storing high-quality samples. He is also the author of ‘Every Deep-Drawn Breath,’ a non-fiction narrative about illness and recovery that won the 2022 Christopher Award. Dr. Ely donates 100% of the net proceeds from his book to an endowment that helps ICU and Long COVID survivors rebuild their lives.