Janna D. Helfrich, MD, is an anesthesiologist who cares for adults before, during, and after surgery. She focuses on providing safe anesthesia care and supporting patients through all phases of their surgical experience.
Dr. Helfrich cares for patients with a wide range of medical conditions who need anesthesia for surgery or procedures. She monitors vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing, and adjusts anesthesia medications to keep patients comfortable and safe. She also has training in intensive care and prehospital emergency care, which helps her manage patients who are critically ill or at higher risk during surgery.
As an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Helfrich studies how anesthesia affects the brain and consciousness. Her research uses brainwave recordings, called EEG, to compare anesthesia with natural sleep and with conditions such as coma. She aims to better understand how changes in brain activity under anesthesia may affect thinking and memory after surgery, and how this knowledge can be used to improve patient care.
Dr. Helfrich earned her medical degree and a medical doctorate from Charite University Medical Center Berlin. She completed residency training in anesthesiology at University Medical Center Tuebingen and University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, all in Germany. She also pursued fellowship training in prehospital emergency care and intensive care medicine at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley.
