Today we are honored to welcome Dr. Roy Brower, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the MICU at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Brower has over 150 publications, numerous national teaching awards and is the most recent recipient of the ATS Life Time Achievement Award (wow!). Today he has been kind enough to cross the highway and give us just a sampling of his immense knowledge of the disease process known as ARDS. This a topic that could take an entire day of lectures to understand, yet Dr. Brower is able to simplify it in a way that only 50 minutes is enough to start to understand just how important pressure can be.