Babar Khan, M.D., M.S., a renowned delirium research scientist and pulmonary and critical care clinician, has been named interim director of the IU Center for Aging Research (CAR) at Regenstrief Institute. On September 22 he will succeed Susan Hickman, PhD, who is departing for a leadership role with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.
With IU CAR at Regenstrief since 2011, Dr. Khan is a research scientist and associate director. He also is a professor of medicine and the Floyd and Reba Smith Professor of Respiratory Disease with the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is widely known for pioneering post-intensive care interventions and for advancing delirium detection, dementia-related care and patient- and caregiver-centered outcomes.
As interim director, he will guide multidisciplinary teams, foster partnerships across health systems and community organizations, and accelerate pragmatic research that translates to better aging experiences, treatment and outcomes.
Dr. Khan has conducted extensive studies on preventing and treating delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU), identifying biomarkers and clinical predictors associated with delirium, and improving outcomes for patients and caregivers. His research focuses on the translational science of delirium – developing and testing innovative, practical interventions for prevention and treatment. He also developed and validated a novel, easy-to-administer tool to score and track delirium severity in the ICU, enabling clinicians to make better decisions regarding the cognitive health of ICU patients.
In addition to his affiliations with Regenstrief and the IU School of Medicine, Dr. Khan is a clinician at Eskenazi Health and IU Health. His clinical programs span both the ICU and a unique post-ICU center known as the Critical Care Recovery Center (CCRC) that treats patients for cognitive, physical and psychological complications resulting from critical illness. In addition to advanced clinical care, the CCRC accelerates the rapid delivery of evidence-based practices and serves as a hub for ahead‑of‑the‑curve post‑ICU research.
