Dr. Hendrickson is a pulmonary and critical care medicine subspecialist with an expertise and research focus in acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the most common life-threatening manifestation of COVID-19 disease in the earliest years of the pandemic. She is the medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. In recent years there have been several retrospective studies published showing an association between race and differences in pulse oximeter performance. Dr. Hendrickson and the EquiOx Team are leading an FDA-sponsored study to measure pulse oximeter bias across a range of skin pigmentation among hospitalized patients. This research program aims to better understand how pulse oximeter performance might be improved to ensure these critical devices perform equally well for all patients regardless of skin pigmentation.

During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, ZSFG, a safety-net hospital for our county cared for approximately half of all ICU patients with COVID-19 disease in San Francisco and Dr. Hendrickson served as the physician lead to establish and run the COVID ICU. Dr. Hendrickson served as a site investigator to offer participation in clinical research studies and access to potential therapeutic agents for patients hospitalized at ZSFG.

COVID-19 Related Research Efforts:
As an ARDS translational researcher and the Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), Dr. Hendrickson pivoted her research endeavors to study COVID-19 disease with a specific interest in pneumonia and ARDS. She is the site principal investigator for two important COVID-19- related studies:
1. STAT Trial - a randomized clinical trial sponsored by the Department of Defense testing mesenchymal stromal cells for ARDS that primarily enrolls critically ill patients with ARDS
from COVID-19
2. COMET Study- a longitudinal cohort study of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease with biospecimen collection sponsored by the National Institute of Health (https://www.comet-study.org). She is also the Clinical Operations Lead and a member of the Executive Committee for the COMET study.

Additionally, Dr. Hendrickson has leadership and site director roles in three other COVID-19-related randomized controlled clinical trials studying anticoagulation strategies, anti-inflammatory medications, and novel cell-based therapy for patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection.