Christian J. Woods, MD

Christian Woods, MD, is an attending physician in the Sections of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine and Infectious Diseases at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Woods is an Associate Professor of Medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He also serves as Vice Chair of Critical Care Education. Dr. Woods’s research efforts are focused on infectious diseases and critical care medicine.

At MedStar Washington, Dr. Woods serves as the Program Director for the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship program and as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program. His interests include medical education, and he is currently in an advanced fellowship program focusing on Graduate Medical Education. He is also involved in a multi-institutional educational collaborative engaged in training critical care fellows for the tri-state region.

Dr. Woods’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Clinical Infectious Diseases, The Journal of Emergency Medicine, and the ATS Scholar. Alternatively, he is a reviewer for several journals, including The Annals of Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine. Frequently, Dr. Woods presents nationally to professional societies on topics including medical education and severe respiratory infections. 



Among other honors, Dr. Woods has received the James A. Curtin Award for Outstanding Clinical Educator from the MedStar Health/Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center Internal Medicine program over ten times and was recognized by the D.C. Chapter of the American College of Physicians with the Sol Katz Teaching Award. He is board-certified in Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine, and Internal Medicine.



Dr. Woods received his medical degree from Saint George's University School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies. He completed a residency in Infectious Disease where he was chief and later a first fellowship in Infectious Diseases and a second fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care at MedStar Health/Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.Research Interests

Selected Research

Impact of a Novel Multi-Institutional Curriculum on Critical Care Fellow Ventilator Knowledge

Management of mechanical ventilation (MV) is a curricular milestone for trainees in pulmonary critical care medicine (PCCM) and critical care medicine (CCM) fellowships. In this article, published in ATS Scholar (2020 Dec 22;2(1):84-96), Dr. Christian Woods and colleagues study the proficiency of mechanical ventilator waveform analysis amongst first-year critical care fellows enrolled in a course on mechanical ventilation. This study showed that while trainees do not recognize common waveform abnormalities at the beginning of their training, they can be trained to do so with a structured curriculum.


Mapping the Distance: From Competence to Capability

Dr. Christian Woods and colleagues authored a perspective piece from the learner’s viewpoint focusing on the current state of medical training, mainly the shift from time-based training to one that focuses more on ensuring capability. Capability-based training and assessment focuses on one’s ability to manage multiple competencies during a situation while adapting to any changes to troubleshoot and reanalyze actions and plans. This ability to adapt allows physicians to manage the ever-fluid situations that present themselves while caring for patients.

In this article, published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, Dr. Woods and colleagues reported the results of a retrospective observational cohort study conducted at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The authors compared the ability of two scoring systems to predict mortality in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. The two scoring systems were found to be similar in identifying patients at low risk for short- and intermediate-term mortality.

View Dr. Woods' publications on PubMed

Boot camp program prepares fellows to care for critically ill patients.