Q&A with Matthew McCauley, MD (he/him), clinical assistant professor, Division of Critical Care Medicine and associate medical director, UW Organ and Tissue Donation Service
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Educational background: I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, medical school at Case Western Reserve University, and residency in emergency medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I also completed a fellowship in anesthesia critical care at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Do you have an area of clinical interest, and how did you get into it? I love teaching about all things critical care, especially as they pertain to care in the emergency department. I’m especially interested in critical care echocardiography, mechanical circulatory support, and patient/family communication as it relates to the management of critically ill patients.
How would you describe your work to a 5-year-old? I have a few jobs. In the emergency department, I help take care of anyone who comes to the hospital needing help and teach young doctors to do the same. I also work in another part of the hospital where I take care of very sick people, focusing on people who just had surgery on their hearts. I also work with a team of other doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to care for patients who will be donating their organs to other very sick patients.
What are you responsible for as Associate Medical Director for the UW Organ and Tissue Donation (OTD) program? The UW OTD is one of 57 federally designated, not-for-profit organ procurement organizations in the nation. For more than 50 years, UW Organ and Tissue Donation has been recognized as one of the nation’s finest organ procurement programs. We are we are a HRSA best-practice site and a national leader in serving deceased donors.
UW OTD acts as the organ procurement organization for a large area of Wisconsin. Together with partner hospitals across the state, UW OTD directs the medical management of patients referred as deceased organ and tissue donors. These cases are managed primarily through the efforts of our incredible organ procurement coordinators but the UW OTDs medical directors are available 24 hours a day to provide guidance and troubleshooting. UW OTD provides education to clinical teams in more than 100 hospitals in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois so they can provide expert support to donor families.
It is an honor to do this important work and to serve organ and tissue donors and their families as they share the ultimate gift of life and healing. I hope to bring my expertise as an intensivist to further develop guidelines, protocols and best practices already in place here at UW. Additionally, I will work with my fellow associate medical director and medical director to foster relationships throughout UW Health and with our partner hospitals. I’m very excited to join this incredible team!
What attracted you to UW–Madison? The BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine is heavily invested in supporting its faculty. I’m both impressed and intimidated by all of my new partners’ successes.
What’s one thing you hope trainees will learn from you and your work? There are so many ways you can elevate your practice as an emergency physician. You can continue to develop as a physician throughout your career, and just about everyone in the hospital has something to teach you.
Most unusual job: Not unusual, but I think it’s worth mentioning that I was a nursing assistant at the UW Hospitals and Clinics. My Epic login is still the same!
What are some of your hobbies and other interests? I enjoy cooking, running, cycling, and basically anything that can get me outside.
If you could have dinner with one person (passed, alive or fictional), who and at where would you make reservations? Anthony Bourdain, and I would let him pick.