Dr. Jochen Steppan is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He serves as the Director or Perioperative Medicine, High Risk Cardiovascular Disease and specializes in cardiothoracic anesthesiology for both adults and children.
Dr. Steppan completed his M.D. at the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg, Germany. He conducted residencies in anesthesiology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additionally, he completed fellowships in anesthesiology and critical care medicine, adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology, and pediatric cardiac anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Steppan is a fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, a fellow of the American Heart Association, and a Diplomate of the European Society of Anaesthesiolgy. He is also a member of the International Anesthesia Research Society, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Society for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society, and the Association of University Anesthesiologists.
Dr. Steppan’s research focuses on vascular stiffness of both the systemic and pulmonary vasculature. Vascular stiffness is an important predictor of and contributor to cardio-vascular morbidity, including systemic and pulmonary hypertension. He has published extensively on endothelial dysfunction (nitric oxide signaling and the role of arginase), vascular changes in sepsis (the role of central sympatholytics), basic pharmacology (signaling mechanisms and their underlying second messengers), and the role of vascular stiffening in systemic and pulmonary arteries (focusing on crosslinking enzymes) – including their clinical implications. He has won several awards for his research and obtained funding from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER), the Society for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA/IARS Mid-Career Grant), and the National Institute of Health (NIH). His research has identified novel target enzymes that contribute to crosslinking of proteins in the vascular matrix and which contribute to age and hypertension related vascular stiffening.
