On January 23, 2022, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) mourned the loss of Hector R. Wong, MD, FCCM, a longtime pediatric member and former Congress cochair. Dr. Wong was the vice-chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a leader in critical care medicine research. He was a world-class academic physician-scientist who worked tirelessly to advance Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s clinical, research, and education missions. He cared for patients and families for more than 25 years, serving as director of the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program until 2004 and director of the Division of Critical Care Medicine until 2020. Dr. Wong and colleagues developed a first-of-its-kind tool to help identify sepsis early, allowing for aggressive protection strategies. The Pediatric Sepsis Biomarker Risk Model II (PERSEVERE-II) draws from biomarkers and clinical data to enable physicians to start medical interventions much earlier and with greater precision.

Dr. Wong was very involved with SCCM, most recently as a senior editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, a member of the Critical Care Medicine editorial board, a senior associate editor of Critical Care Explorations, and a member of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Pediatric Sepsis Guidelines Taskforce.

To honor Dr. Wong’s lifelong dedication to critical care medicine research, SCCM has created the Hector R. Wong Award for Precision Medicine in Sepsis. A $1000 cash award and a plaque will be presented at SCCM’s Critical Care Congress annually, beginning in 2024.

How you can help

To provide ongoing financial support for this award, a minimum of $50,000 in donations must be collected. Your generous donation is respectfully requested to help fund this award, which will help honor Dr. Wong’s dedication to sepsis research.