Dr. Choukalas is an academic anesthesiologist and intensive care physician. He is Co-PI on a study investigating the role of sleep, activity, and physical therapy in post-operative delirium and cognitive dysfunction, consults for medical device marketers, leads process improvement/systems redesign efforts using lean methodologies, and thinks and writes about the larger world of healthcare structure and policy, including a book chapter on occupational exposures in anesthesia practice for Miller's Anesthesia, the pre-eminent text in the field.

His undergraduate and graduate degrees are in psychology from Gustavus Adolphus College and Iowa State University, respectively, and he graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed residency training in anesthesiology at the University of Chicago, and fellowship training in critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is board-certified in anesthesiology and critical care medicine, and is an active clinician in both specialties.