Michael Kurz, MD has been appointed as Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section of Emergency Medicine effective April 1, 2023. Dr. Kurz recently served as Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Dr. Kurz received his MD from University of Virginia School of Medicine and concurrently received an MS in Health Evaluation Sciences. He graduated from The University of Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency Program in 2006 and went on to complete his fellowship training in Emergency Cardiac Care at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Dr. Kurz joined the faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at VCU in 2007, where he served as the Director of Emergent Cardiac Care, overseeing the operations for the Chest Pain Center and Advanced Resuscitation, Cooling Therapeutics, and Intensive Care (ARCTIC) program. During his time at VCU he also served as Medical Director for the Henrico County Division of Fire and directed fellowships in Emergent Cardiac Care and Clinical Resuscitation.
In 2013 Dr. Kurz was recruited to the faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) and served in several leadership positions within the Department and institution including Vice Chair for Research, Director of the Alabama Resuscitation Center, and Director of UAB Post-Cardiac Arrest Consult Service. In the last decade the multidisciplinary UAB Post Arrest Service demonstrated a survival rate of 31 which far exceeded the statewide average of 3%. Based upon its success, Dr. Kurz has consulted internationally to assist in the creation of resuscitation systems-of-care modeled after UAB’s program.
Dr. Kurz’s research focuses on sudden cardiac arrest including intra- and post-arrest care, novel serum biomarkers for ischemia-reperfusion injury, rehabilitation for cardiac arrest survivors, and construction of resuscitation systems of care. At UAB he directed the Acute Care Research Team for seven years, successfully enrolling more than 20,000 subjects. He has conducted resuscitation research funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, and various foundations (UAB Health Services Foundation, Zoll Medical Foundation, Emergency Medicine Foundation) and professional organizations (Society of Critical Care Medicine).
Dr. Kurz’s academic work includes over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, editorials, and reviews, including work published in NEJM, JAMA, Circulation, Critical Care Medicine, and the Annals of Emergency Medicine. He currently serves as a guest editor for Circulation. Nationally he is the immediate-past chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) Emergency Cardiac Care Committee (ECC) Systems of Care Subcommittee and has contributed to the AHA ECC guidelines since 2010. He was recently appointed as Chair of the 2025 AHA advanced life support (ALS) guidelines. He has trained dozens of residents and fellows many who have successfully become physician-scientists. He is the recipient of the 2021 ATLAS Award for Extraordinary Service to the UAB Department of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Kurz’s vision for the Section will continue its proud tradition of educating the next generation of physician leaders in Emergency Medicine, elevating the Section’s profile through research innovation and building strategic collaborations across UChicago Medicine to improve clinical operations.