C Foundation

Write a Review760-778-4911

The Institute of Critical Care Medicine was founded in 1961 by Doctors Max Harry Weil and the late Herbert S. Shubin as a non-profit public foundation at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. It was incorporated in the State of California in 1975. The Institute's predecessor in 1959 initiated the nation's first cardiovascular resuscitation ward as part of the USC School of Medicine at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, and at the USC sponsored Center of the Critically Ill at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. In 1981, the group moved to the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School. In 1991, the international headquarters of the Institute of Critical Care Medicine was opened in Palm Springs, CA. It is an affiliate of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the Desert Regional Medical Center of Palm Springs and the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School. Dr. Weil continues professional appointments at USC, Northwestern University Medical School, University of Pittsburgh, and at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. With the completion of the new international headquarters in Rancho Mirage, the Institute moved to its current headquarters in 2004. At the end of 2006, Dr. Weil retired from the administrative duty. To honor his substantial contributions to the Institute, based on the recommendation of the Francis Berger Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Institute renamed the Institute to Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine is recognized as a comprehensive international center of medical and biomechanical engineering research in Critical Care and resuscitation medicine. It provides in-house state-of-the art medical and biomedical engineering laboratories. The medical research laboratories include cell biology laboratory, biochemistry laboratory, small animal laboratory and a pre-clinical large animal laboratory. Collaborative clinical research has been arranged with major university medical centers and especially with former trainees and associates. Such collaborative programs have been sponsored in Trieste, Italy ; Toronto, Canada ; Basel, Switzerland ; Haifa, Israel ; Sao Paulo, Brazil ; Shanghai and Guangzhou, China ; Caracas, Venezuela ; Brussels, Belgium ; Santiago, Chile ; Amsterdam, The Netherlands ; Slovenia, Czechoslovakia ; Taipei, Taiwan ; New York, New York ; and Indianapolis, Indiana. To conduct world-wide studies, WICCM is linked by computer to more than 1, 000 study beds, gathering valuable patient data for clinical research on critical illnesses, injuries and especially on the benefits of new treatments. Current research projects under investigation at the Institute are dedicated to improving the presently disappointing outcomes of cardiac resuscitation, thus making the most significant advancements in life sustaining medical technology in the world. Major research is on-going not only to improve the outcome of CPR but also circulatory shock, life-threatening heart failure, acute lung failure and overwhelming infections which produce septic shock. The Institute is a major contributor to the medical literature with over 1000 publications. During the last ten years the faculty of WICCM have received more than 30 prestigious awards from different medical organizations for their outstanding innovative research work. The Institute has been awarded 24 U.S. patents. Research continues in medical engineering for the development of more effective life-saving and "humane" devices for intensive care units and portable CPR defibrillation devices. Also, programs are underway addressing the ethical and human components of life-saving medical care in intensive care units.