Paul Ellis Marik (born March 26, 1958)^[1] is a medical doctor and former professor of medicine who until his resignation in January 2022 served as chair of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and was also a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. His research interests include sepsis and tissue oxygenation.^[2][3] In August 2023 the American Board of Internal Medicine informed Marik his certification was to be revoked for spreading misinformation.^[4]

Marik developed the "Marik protocol" (also called the "HAT" protocol), a now discredited treatment for preventing sepsis.^[5] He is a co-leader of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which has misleadingly advocated for the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19 against the advice of leading health agencies.^[5][6][7] Marik has called himself a "status quo destabilizer".^[8]

Early life and education

Marik was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.^[9] He earned a Master of Medicine in the Specialty of Internal Medicine in 1987 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.^[10][11]

Marik was an ICU attending at Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto, South Africa.^[12]

Career

Marik did a critical care fellowship in London, Ontario, Canada, and subsequently has worked in the United States in teaching hospitals since 1992.^[12]

In 2001, Marik was author of the Handbook of Evidence Based Critical Care.^[13] Reviewing its second edition for the journal Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, K. M. Ho wrote in 2011 that the book was "useful for junior doctors or intensive care trainees" but had "some limitations" such as "obvious drug dosage error" and "omissions of hypotensive effects".^[14] Another review, by Peter J. Papadakos in 2003 for the journal Respiratory Care, called it "an excellent introduction to the concept of evidence-based medicine".^[15]

From 2002 to 2006, Marik was part of the Editorial Board of Chest journal.^[16]

In 2005, Marik was named Director at the Division Pulmonary and Critical Care at Jefferson Medical College (JMC) and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.^[2]

In 2009, Marik became a professor and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School.^[17]

In 2011, an international committee assembled by the main thoracic and respiratory national societies published guidelines for the diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The guidelines' section on the treatment of complications relied in part on the results of Marik's 2001 research on the association of gastric reflux and aspiration.^[18]

In 2012, an international committee updated guidelines for the management of severe sepsis and septic shock. In its section of supportive therapy recommendations, the committee based its concept on blood product administrations partly on research performed by Marik and W. Sibbald in 1993.^[19]

In 2017, Marik won the American College of Physicians award for outstanding educator of residents and fellows.^[20] He has written over 450 peer-reviewed journal articles.^[21]

In March 2021, Marik was reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine and ordered to complete additional education in prescribing practices after it was found he had prescribed drugs, including phenobarbital, oxycodone, tramadol, alprazolam, and diazepam, to people who were not his patients.^[22][23] In November 2021, he sued his employer, Sentara Health, over its ban on prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19. His clinical privileges at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital were suspended shortly afterward.^[24][25] He resigned from Eastern Virginia Medical School effective December 31, 2021.^{[26][27][28][29]}

Selected publications

Marik, Paul E. (2012). "Pneumonia, Aspiration". In Vincent, Jean Louis., and Hall, Jesse B. eds. (2012). Encyclopedia of Intensive Care Medicine. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00418-6

References