Listen to this article

Gabe Kelen

Director, Department of Emergency Medicine
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Dr. Gabe Kelen had Johns Hopkins Medicine ready when the pandemic struck last year. In the years before the pandemic, Kelen had helped prepare the regional health care giant for major emergencies and was able to launch emergency response planning for the pandemic in January 2020.

Two months later, he activated the Johns Hopkins 24-7 unified command center, which manages COVID-19 responses at the six Johns Hopkins hospitals. He also began working seven days a week, including as an emergency physi­cian on the front lines at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The command center is a rapid-response hub, Kelen said, that coordinates many diverse issues including buying personal protective equipment, testing protocols, vaccines, patient care and staff and public communications.

“The center allows doctors to rapidly share information about patients and capacity in real-time, and ensures that patients end up in the right unit in the right hospital,” he said. “This system has allowed clinicians to collaborate so thousands of severely ill COVID-19 patients receive the care they need.”

Kelen, an emergency medicine doctor at the hospital since 1984, is also chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University; the director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, and the director of the National Center for the Study of Preparedness and Cata­strophic Event Response.

Kevin W. Sowers, president of Johns Hopkins Health Systems, said Kelen has worked tire­lessly to save lives. “He has been commendably responsive and has brought to this process the calm, even-keeled leadership needed to set the tone for our physicians and staff.”

Dr. Paul B. Rothman, dean of the medical faculty and CEO at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said there is no telling how many lives Kelen’s work has saved. “Over the past year, I have relied on Gabe enormously and he has been one of the foundational people in our pandemic response. He has truly been remarkable in the scope of his impact.”