We’re starting out the new year with a new Member Spotlight: Our January 2023 honoree is John Hagen, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, NY.

Nominator Steven Porter, MD, tells us that Dr. Hagen is an expert in pediatric anesthesiology, pediatric cardiac anesthesiology, and regional anesthesiology in children.

“He significantly influenced the practice of regional anesthesia in children while at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center and now at Memorial Sloan Kettering where he serves as the chief of pediatric anesthesiology,” Dr. Porter writes. “He has also developed an interest in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and has taught at ASRA Pain Medicine’s Introduction to Perioperative POCUS course.

“I would consider him an ‘influencer’ of pediatric regional anesthesia with his website/company www.baby-blocks.com, where he educates anesthesiologists on the role of regional anesthesia in children.”

Dr. Hagen is the chief of pediatric anesthesia, director of pediatric regional anesthesia, and an associate attending at MSKCC. He received his MD from the State University of New York – Downstate, in Brooklyn, NY, and his MBA from Columbia University in New York City. He is a fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has served at the Long Island Jewish Cohen Children’s Medical Center on Long Island including as an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and former director of pediatric cardiac anesthesia. During his tenure at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, the pediatric division became one of the highest volume pediatric regional anesthesia centers in the country, regularly performing over two thousand blocks every year in children of all ages, including neonates. 

He has completed congenital cardiac humanitarian missions in the Dominican Republic and Mexico and has presented at various medical conferences including at the Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine, the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia, the International Anesthesia Research Society, and ASRA Pain Medicine, among others.