Skip to main content

Anastasia Grivoyannis, MD

Languages:
English, Greek
Specialty/Profession:
Pediatric Anesthesiology
Board Certifications:
American Board of Anesthesiology; American Board of Pediatric Anesthesiology
Areas of Clinical Interest:
Pediatric Anesthesia
Education:

Fellowship: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2017)
Residency: New York Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell (2016)
Internship: University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals (2012)
Medical School: Weill Cornell Medical College (2011)
Undergraduate: Cornell University (2006)
 

Awards & Recognition:

Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Resident Scholar (2014)
Merck Index Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry (2006)

Clinic Locations: Fairfax

Keystone Publications:

Grivoyannis AD, Tangel V, Lien CA. Vigilance: the behavioral impact of quantitative monitoring on administration and antagonism of neuromuscular blocking agents. Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing. 2022 Aug;36(4):1043-1051.

Kato MA, Zurakowski D, Adams A, Soelberg J, Staffa SJ, Bradford VA, Efune PN, Rodgers McCormick ME, Grivoyannis AD, Rossman Beel E, Correll LR, Cheon EC, Tan GM, Thomas JJ, Fernandez AM, Teng HC, Khanna N, Raman VT, Brzenski AB, Frugoni BJ, Sheth MM, Rugnath RM, Meier PM. Prevalence of COVID-19 and Risk Factors for Infection Among Pediatric Anesthesia Patients: A Report from the PEACOC Research Network. Anesthesia and Analgesia. 2022 Oct 21.

King MR, Staffa SJ, Stricker PA, Perez-Pradilla C, Nelson O, Benzon HA, Goobie SM; Grivoyannis AD in Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group. Safety of antifibrinolytics in 6583 pediatric patients having craniosynostosis surgery: A decade of data reported from the multicenter Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group. Paediatric Anaesthesia. 2022 Dec;32(12):1339-1346.

Maiga H, Grivoyannis AD, Sagara I, Traore K, Traore OB, Tolo Y, Traore A, Bamadio A, Traore ZI, Sanogo K, Doumbo OK, Plowe CK, Djimde AA. Selection of pfcrt K76 and pfmdr1 N86 Coding Alleles after Uncomplicated Malaria Treatment by Artemether-Lumefantrine in Mali. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021 Jun 3;22(11):6057.

Grivoyannis AD in WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network Methodology Study Group. Temporal distribution of Plasmodium falciparum recrudescence following artemisinin-based combination therapy: an individual participant data meta-analysis. Malaria Journal. 2022 Mar 24;21(1):106.

Where did you grow up?
Bronx, NY and Short Hills, NJ
Why did you become a doctor and why did you choose your specialty?
I was interested in everything growing up, but my parents also instilled in me a belief in service. I had a love of science, technology, and math, but also reading, foreign languages, and art. As a child, I anticipated I’d grow up to be a painter/scientist/teacher all-in-one. In college, I discovered organic chemistry. Chemistry was intuitive to me: simultaneously computational, complex, left-brained, and spatial, creative, right-brained.

Towards the end of college, I discovered the work of Lewis Thomas. The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher made me realize how a single cell is monumentally more complex than any of the molecules I was synthesizing in the lab. Dr. Thomas’ last books, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher and The Fragile Species, instilled in me a respect and awe for the service of physicians and an appreciation for medicine as a nascent science. Its infancy was really the 20th century, when compared to fields like physics and chemistry. I also realized how much I enjoyed serving my community as an EMT first responder at the time.

I became an anesthesiologist because every day I get to think about how molecules as simple as 2 6-diisopropylphenol (commercially Propofol) have the power to pause human consciousness. I cannot pretend to understand human consciousness in the manner that some scientists are studying it, but I have the privilege (and the great responsibility) of tinkering with it every day. The field of anesthesiology innately is about alleviating suffering, and while I may no longer have the lofty goals of discovering a vaccine against malaria, I do get the daily satisfaction that I have alleviated someone’s suffering (or potential suffering) when they undergo surgery.
How long have you practiced in the Washington, DC area and what do you like most about it?
I have been practicing in the area since 2018 when I came to Baltimore, MD as a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. I moved to Washington, DC in 2022 and expanded my practice to the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia.
Do you volunteer? If so, where?
I have been a field worker for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) since 2017. I do not consider it volunteer work, but an extension of my job and fulfillment of my value to serve those in need. It has been a privilege to serve with MSF in 2017 as a trauma anesthesiologist for Syrian refugees at Za’atari Refugee Camp near Ramtha, Jordan; in 2018 as a pediatric anesthesiologist at Bardnesville Junction Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia in a post-Ebola context; and in 2019 as an anesthesiologist and airway management expert for children and adults suffering from noma in Sokoto, Nigeria. I look forward to the next opportunity to train, learn, and collaborate with the international talent that MSF cultivates.
If you weren’t a doctor, what profession would you most likely be doing and why?
Can I state my childhood dream of being a painter/scientist/teacher all-in-one? My adult-self thinks I might have made a good high school chemistry teacher or perhaps an art conservator.