Anica Law MD, MS, ATSF

Assistant Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine

72 East Concord Street | (617) 358-2800
anicalaw@bu.edu

Sections

Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine

Biography

Dr. Law is a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician, clinical epidemiologist, and health services researcher with a focus on understanding determinants of outcomes after critical illness. An unprecedented number of patients now survive the intensive care unit (ICU) but suffer severe organ dysfunction, requiring forms of long-term organ support, such as mechanical ventilation or artificial nutrition. Using both granular clinical and national claims databases, and leveraging natural experiments where feasible (e.g., policy changes), the goal of her research is to better inform decision-making during critical illness and the optimal delivery of care after acute critical illness.

She has published > 70 original studies in high-impact journals including JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Network Open, AJRCCM, and Annals of Internal Medicine. Her work has been included in the Top Papers” in the ATS Clinical Year in Review (2023, 2024), and covered by media outlets such as NPR, U.S. News & World Report, and the Associated Press. Her NIA-funded F32 and NHLBI-funded K23 characterized national practices and outcomes for patients receiving long-term feeding and breathing tubes during critical illness. These studies demonstrated (1) poor patient-centered outcomes after receipt of feeding/breathing tubes and (2) unexpected declines in incidence of prolonged mechanical ventilation with increases in palliative care and hospice among Medicare beneficiaries—trends that diverged from earlier projections. She also showed that Medicare payment reforms substantially reduced access to long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs), leading to increased use of do-not-resuscitate orders and lower costs to Medicare, highlighting how policy shifts influence upstream care decisions and post-acute resource use. She now helms an R01, "Quantifying Uncertainty to Inform Time-Limited Trials of Invasive Mechanical Ventilation" (scored in the 1st percentile at NIH/NHLBI), which seeks to improve patient and family engagement in early prognostication for mechanically ventilated patients.

Websites

BU Profile

Boston Medical Center Provider Profile

Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research

Education

MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

MS, Harvard School of Public Health

Biology, AB, Harvard College

Publications

Published on 10/27/2025

Shen BH, Shankar DA, Bosch NA, Walkey AJ, Piazza G, Klings ES, Law AC. Contemporary reperfusion therapies in patients with intermediate- and high-risk pulmonary embolism. Thromb Res. 2025 Oct 27; 256:109523. PMID: 41175547.

PubMed

Published on 9/17/2025

Li B, Gershengorn HB, Vail EA, Wunsch H, Walkey AJ, Law AC, Ko D, Ayalon N, Kearney CM, Bosch NA. Inotrope Selection in Mixed Cardiogenic Shock with Sepsis: A Comparative Analysis between Milrinone and Dobutamine. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Sep 17. PMID: 40960311.

PubMed

Published on 8/28/2025

Erfle BA, Steel TL, Law AC, Kaufman DA, Hills-Dunlap K, Afshar M, Walkey AJ, Austad KE, Drainoni ML, Bosch NA. Pharmacological Interventions for Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome Among Hospitalized Adults: A Multicenter Cohort Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 Aug 28. PMID: 40877712.

PubMed

Published on 7/18/2025

Viglianti EM, Cano J, Seelye S, Kruser JM, Law AC, Iwashyna TJ, Prescott HC. Institutional Variation in Specialty Palliative Care Consultation Among Patients With Persistent Critical Illness: A Cohort Study. Chest. 2025 Jul 18. PMID: 40684907.

PubMed

Published on 7/14/2025

Bosch NA, Law AC, Roubinian NH, Reza Jafarzadeh S, Walkey AJ. Variation in effectiveness of blood transfusion by hospital day: A multicenter retrospective study. J Hosp Med. 2025 Jul 14. PMID: 40659365.

PubMed

Published on 5/20/2025

Bosch NA, Wilson KC, Law AC. Are Procalcitonin Measures a Reliable Predictor of Stopping Antibiotics Among Patients With Sepsis? JAMA. 2025 May 20; 333(19):1728. PMID: 40227721.

PubMed

Published on 4/10/2025

Gallegos-Koyner F, Barrera N, Carvalhais RM, Chong DH, Law A, Moskowitz A. Trends in tracheostomy placement after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resusc Plus. 2025 May; 23:100956. PMID: 40322635.

PubMed

Published on 4/1/2025

Pang B, Kearney CM, Law AC, Bosch NA. Trends in the Treatment of Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Apr; 22(4):620-623. PMID: 39700483.

PubMed

Published on 3/24/2025

Dobie A, Shen B, Homer-Bouthiette C, Shankar D, Pang B, Law A, Bosch NA. Practice Pattern Variation in Management of Severe Acute Asthma Among Mechanically Ventilated Patients in Pediatric Versus Adult ICUs. Crit Care Explor. 2025 Apr 01; 7(4):e1233. PMID: 40126920.

PubMed

Published on 2/24/2025

Ferri GM, Kothari OA, Gurnani SD, Law AC, Bosch NA, Shen BH. Practice Patterns and Outcomes of Initial Anticoagulation Among Hospitalized Patients With Low- and Low-Intermediate-Risk Pulmonary Embolism. CHEST Pulm. 2025 Jun; 3(2). PMID: 40777759.

PubMed

View full list of 83 publications.