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Tessa L. Steel, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington

Tessa L. Steel, MD, MPH is a Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine physician at Harborview Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a practicing ICU physician and alcohol health services researcher focused on improving the management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in emergency, inpatient, and ICU settings. Dr. Steel has led health system–level efforts to improve AWS care through the development and implementation of standardized, evidence-informed clinical pathways and electronic health record (EHR) order sets across Seattle’s major hospital systems, including UW Medicine and Providence Swedish. She helped develop statewide AWS protocols through the Substance Use Consultation and Learning Academy–Northwest. Dr. Steel's NIH-funded research focuses on the comparative effectiveness and safety of different AWS treatments in real-world hospital settings. She collaborates closely with multidisciplinary clinical teams, informatics leaders, and hospital administrators to align AWS treatment with pathophysiology, improve symptom control, reduce complications, and support safer care transitions. At the regional level, Dr. Steel serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Society of Addiction Medicine. At the national level, she is co-chairing the forthcoming Society of Critical Care Medicine clinical practice guideline on ICU management of AWS and previously co-chaired the American Thoracic Society’s Official Research Statement on Severe AWS. Across these roles, she brings a pragmatic, case-based approach to AWS management that integrates bedside clinical judgment, evidence-informed decision-making, and systems-level solutions to improve care for patients with AWS and alcohol use disorder.

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Presentation(s):