Ayres Remembered as a Leader in Early Critical Care
Stephen M. Ayres, MD, a man credited with many “firsts” in critical care medicine, passed away on September 12 at the age of 79 in Newport News, Virginia, USA. Dr. Ayres was an early leader of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) community, serving as the ninth president in 1979.
“Dr. Ayres should be credited with the first use of the term ‘critically ill,’” said SCCM founding president Max Harry Weil, MD, PhD ScD (Hon), distinguished university professor at the Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine. On a more personal note, he added that “he was a very nice human being who had the gift of bringing people together. I liked him immensely. He was gracious and perfectly suited to be a dean.”
Dr. Ayres’ 1967 book, Care of the Critically Ill, was the first to focus on this subject. During the 1960s, he also worked on an important series of papers with Hiltrud Muller, MD, on the effects of coronary occlusion on blood circulation and the heart muscle.
Dr. Ayres earned his medical degree from Cornell University in 1957. His internal medicine residency was at New York Hospital, where he completed residency and fellowship training in cardiology and cardiopulmonary physiology after serving two years in the U.S. Army as a radiologist.
Following two years of general medical practice, Dr. Ayres became director of the cardiopulmonary laboratory at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, where he was a disciple of SCCM past president William Grace, MD. While there, Dr. Ayres built a research program in both heart and pulmonary diseases and organized one of the first intensive care units in the country.
Dennis Greenbaum, MD, FCCM, current chief of medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, credited Dr. Ayres’ interest and research in the fledgling field of critical care medicine as one of the reasons he and others entered the field. “In those days the scope of cardiology and pulmonary medicine was so small that they could be combined into a single section of cardiopulmonary medicine, which Steve chaired.
“Steve was an intellectual of unusual degree, a man of humor and good sense,” added Greenbaum. “He was brilliant, devoted to the truths of science, and with the ability to combine this with humor and political wisdom. People like Steve are rare.”
Dr. Ayres left New York in 1975 to chair the Department of Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University for the next decade. During that time, he also served as medical director of Saint Louis University Hospital and organized a successful health maintenance organization, Group Health Plan of Saint Louis, with several colleagues.
Dr. Ayres was dean of the Medical College of Virginia from 1985 to 1993, where became a leader in critical care and intensive care treatment innovations. He revamped the curriculum and changed the way the school taught, allowing students to more fully engage in the practice of medicine.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Ayres shifted his focus to global health issues with Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) then-president Eugene P. Trani. The two frequently traveled to Russia, and the VCU Center for International Affairs was created. In 1995, Dr. Ayres assumed leadership of VCU’s International Health Program and later managed an educational exchange program with the Christian Children's Fund of Richmond and the Belarus Children's Fund in Minsk.
Over the years, Dr. Ayres also took on environmental issues. He was president of the New York State Action for Clean Air in the 1960s and served on former New York Mayor John Lindsay's Environmental Protection Board and the Board of Health in Westfield, New Jersey.
“Steve worked on a major project for New York City that focused on the impact of carbon monoxide levels on the health of tollway employees at the city’s tunnel and bridge toll plazas,” said Greenbaum.
In 1991, former President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Ayres to the U.S. Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency where he advised on national clean air quality standards and worked on the preservation of the ecosystem.
In addition to his leadership at SCCM, Dr. Ayres was a member of numerous professional societies and was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by his alma mater, Gettysburg College. He was the author of more than 150 published papers, 11 textbooks and numerous book chapters.
Dr. Ayres was preceded in death by his son, Stephen McClintock Ayres Jr. He is survived by his wife, Dolores Kobrick Ayres, two daughters, five grandchildren and a great-grandson.
