Stuart (Stu) A. Forman, MD, PhD

Professor of Anaesthesiology, Harvard Medical School

Departments

Anesthesia, Critical Care & Pain Medicine Go To Programs

• Anesthesia

Clinical Interests

• Combined epidural and general anesthesia
• Anesthesia for abdominal surgery
• Anesthesia for bariatric surgery
• Thoracic and regional anesthesia
• Vascular anesthesia

Medical Education

• MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School
• Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Fellowship, Massachusetts General Hospital

Board Certifications

• Anesthesiology

Locations

• Boston: Massachusetts General Hospital

Insurances Accepted

• Aetna Health Inc.
• Beech Street
• Blue Cross Blue Shield - Blue Care 65
• Blue Cross Blue Shield - Indemnity
• Blue Cross Blue Shield - Managed Care
• Blue Cross Blue Shield - Partners Plus
• Cigna (PAL #'s)
• Fallon Community HealthCare
• Great-West Healthcare (formally One Health Plan)
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan - PBO
• Health Care Value Management (HCVM)
• Humana/Choice Care PPO
• MassHealth
• Medicare
• Medicare - ACD
• Neighborhood Health Plan - ACD
• Neighborhood Health Plan - PBO
• OSW - Maine
• OSW - New Hampshire
• OSW - Rhode Island
• OSW - Vermont
• Private Health Care Systems (PHCS)
• Railroad Medicare
• Railroad Medicare - ACD
• Senior Whole Health
• TriCare
• Tufts Health Plan
• Unicare
• United Healthcare (non-HMO) - ACD
• United Healthcare (non-HMO) - PBO

Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.

Patient Age Group

Adult

Gender

Male

Research Summary

Research Areas

• Molecular Mechanisms of General Anesthetics
• Structure and Function of Ligand-gated Ion Channels
• Allosteric Drug Mechanisms
• Kinetic Models for Ion Channel function
• New General Anesthetic Drug Development

 

Description of Research

 

My research aims are to understand where and how general anesthetics act at the molecular level in order to help design better drugs for use in clinical settings. The molecular targets studied are anesthetic sensitive pentameric ligand-gated ion channels, including g-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA_A), glycine, nicotinic acetylcholine, and serotonin receptors. Of greatest interest are potent intravenous agents including etomidate, propofol, alphaxalone, and barbiturates. We express cloned channels in cells and use electrophysiological methods to study channel function. We developed a unique 'artificial synapse' technique for high-resolution kinetic studies.  Based on an allosteric co-agonist mechanism that we established for etomidate and propofol, we conduct structure-function studies in mutant receptors. We are also mapping out binding sites for anesthetics using substituted cysteine accessibility methods that combine electrophysiology with real-time chemical modification of receptors. In collaboration with Keith Miller, DPhil and Doug Raines, MD, my group also contributes to research on new photo-reactive general anesthetics, production of GABA_A receptor protein for photolabeling, and development of new general anesthetics for clinical use.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

View publications