Paul E. Marik

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]

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.[3]

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.[17]

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.[18]

In 2017, Marik won the American College of Physicians (ACP) award for outstanding educator of residents and fellows.[19]

Marik is inventor of the "Marik protocol", also known as the "HAT" protocol, which proposes a combination of hydrocortisone, vitamin C, and thiamine as a treatment for preventing sepsis for people in intensive care.[5] Marik's own initial research, published in Chest in 2017, showed a dramatic evidence of benefit.[20] The protocol gained popularity among intensive care physicians, especially after it received attention on social media and National Public Radio, but drew criticism of science by press conference from the wider medical community.[21][22][8] Subsequent independent research failed to replicate Marik's positive results, indicating the possibility that they had been compromised by bias.[8][23] A systematic review of trials in 2021 found that the claimed benefits of the protocol could not be confirmed.[24]