Grants, fellows, new FOCUS sites and Annual Meeting activity
At the 2010 SCA Annual Meeting, the SCA Research Committee and the SCA Foundation announced the recipients of the 2010 research grants. We would like to recognize the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), the Clinical Practice Enhancement and Anesthesia Research Foundation, and Michael Roizen for their contributions to make these named grants possible.
SCA/IARS Starter Grants
Timo Brandenburger, M.D.
University Hospital Duesseldorf, Germany
Effects of microRNA-1 knockdown on IGF-1 and cMet expression and
impact on hypoxia-induced cell death in rat myoblast cells H9c2
Tetsuro Sakai, M.D., Ph.D
University of Pittsburgh
Role of Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase in Stem Cell Mediated
Neuronal Protection In Vitro
Roizen Anesthesia Research Foundation New Investigator Grant
Joern A. Karhausen, M.D., Ph.D
Duke University Medical Center
The intestinal injury in a rat model of deep hypothermic cardiac arrest:
critical role of mucosal mast cells for barrier function and inflammation
SCA/IARS Mid-Career Grant
Gregory MT Hare, M.D.
St. Michael's Hospital
Determining the Hemoglobin Threshold for Hypoxic Cellular Responses:
Studies in Anemic Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF)-ODD-Luciferase Mice
Fellows Session and the Kaplan Fellows Program
By James Abernathy, III, M.D. and Douglas Shook, M.D.
The 2010 Fellow Session at the Annual Meeting was by all measures a success. Approximately 90 fellows attended the annual meeting – doubling the number who attended in 2009. This single, remarkable achievement represents the combined efforts of the Fellowship Program Directors, SCA Board of Directors, the Program Committee, SCA Foundation leadership, the energy and the draw of Dr. Joel Kaplan.
The fellow session began with a complex case discussion intended for both the general SCA membership and the fellows attending the conference. Four cases were chosen for presentation through a blinded, competitive process from over 60 fellow submissions. Each fellow presented their case to a panel of experts for discussion and education. Following the case presentations, SCA members had the opportunity to further learn from difficult cardiac and thoracic cases during the fellow complex case posters presentations. These posters represented the difficult cardiac and thoracic cases that our fellows are undertaking during their 12-month fellowships. Dr. Quinton Gurley continued the fellow session with a lecture about how to get more involved in the SCA. Dr. Avery Tung entertained the audience with his enlightening lecture about medical decision making. Drs. Joel Kaplan and Jeff Vender concluded the fellow session with two lectures about pathways to success, which not only include the traditional research pathway, but also education and business administration. The audience included not only fellows, but also many interested members including Chairmen and Directors of our society.
With the vision of Dr. Kaplan, the support of the SCA Foundation and the SCA, the fellow session will continue to mature. The mission is to develop a curriculum that will assist fellows and junior staff to become future leaders – subjects rarely taught in medical education. Today’s fellows and junior staff are tomorrow’s leaders and the SCA is committed to giving them the tools to make them successful.
Get Involved in FOCUS - New Sites Being Requested
By James Abernathy, III, M.D.
FOCUS is soliciting sites for Phase II of the project. This phase includes the following components:
- Develop a learning collaborative within the cardiac surgical teams to enhance patient safety. This process will use the Michigan Keystone model developed by Dr. Pronovost and the QSRG team that has been so successful in eliminating catheter based infections in the ICU setting. The FOCUS learning collaborative will use reduction in wound infections as the metric that will inform us of how we are doing.
- Develop a peer-to-peer assessment tool that can be used by operating room teams to assess their own safety performance, or be used by an invited visiting team to provide feedback regarding areas for improvement in safety. This non-judgmental, for-internal-use-only peer-to-peer assessment tool will be based on the highly successful WANO (World Association of Nuclear Operators) process that has made the nuclear industry a “highly reliable” industry.
- Design the operating room of the future. Tackle the issues of equipment and OR design to improve the interfaces between humans and the machines they use to deliver patient care in the operating room.
Whether you work in a large academic center or an agile, efficient private practice, we ask that you consider participating as a research FOCUS site. The FOCUS Committee is soliciting sites willing to participate in Phase II of FOCUS. If your institution is interested in participating, please complete the site application form found on the SCA Foundation’s website in the FOCUS Section. The deadline for submission is June 15, 2010. Those institutions that applied and or participated in Phase I are asked to complete the new application for Phase II. There was a great response for Phase I and we are confident Phase II will garner the same amount of support from the SCA membership. Decisions will be made by the Site Selection Committee based upon the needs of each research project. For more information, you can contact me with the Site Selection committee or John Melleky with the SCA Foundation.
Support the SCA Foundation
Donate to the SCA Foundation and support our research grants, education programs such as the Kaplan Fellows Leadership program, the FOCUS Initiative, and the creation of a cardiovascular anesthesiology module for the STS database.
Donations to the SCA Foundation can be made directly to the SCA Foundation, 2209 Dickens Road, Richmond, VA 23230 or via online at our website, www.scahqgive.org.
Foundation Activities at the Annual Meeting
By Joyce A. Wahr, M.D.
The SCA Foundation was busy throughout the Annual Meeting. Below are descriptions of the various activities throughout the week.
Friday, FOCUS meeting: On Friday afternoon, representatives from the five FOCUS observational sites, FOCUS committee members, and members of the Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group met to review the FOCUS project and results, and map out the next steps. Elizabeth Martinez, MD, project director for FOCUS research at QSRG, presented some preliminary results, and a lively discussion was held about what these results meant, and how they would inform the interventions to be designed. Although the FOCUS Steering Committee will determine the strategic plan going forward, the insights and viewpoints of those attending will be incorporated. Finally, a tentative list of publications was presented, with the lead author and a brief discussion of the results to be included.
Sunday, FOCUS session: At long last, the results of the FOCUS observational visits are available! Elizabeth Martinez presented in fascinating detail the results of the QSRG literature search on errors in cardiac surgery, the analysis of the errors in cardiac surgery identified in the United Kingdom error reporting system, and the results of the observational visits. Common themes identified throughout are that small events matter and accumulate to weaken recovery from an error; there are significant lapses in infection prevention that can and should be easily rectified; communication errors are common and represent a significant hazard to patients; hand-offs and transitions of care are often poorly done. These themes will guide the interventions of Phase II of the FOCUS initiative For more information, please visit the FOCUS page on the Foundation website (www.scahqgive.org).
Sunday, SCA Foundation Reception: Held in a historic French Quarter landmark, the Foundation fund-raising reception this year honored Dr. Joel Kaplan for his tremendous past leadership of the SCA and cardiac anesthesia in general, and for his current leadership in establishing the Kaplan Fellows Education Fund. Dr. Kaplan’s vision is that “one of the responsibilities of leaders is to guide the development of new generations of leaders,” and the Kaplan Fund is dedicated to doing just that! Over the next five years, the SCA and the SCA Foundation will work closely to build on the existing fellows program at the Annual Meeting, and design a grant program to provide the best and brightest with opportunities to develop leadership skills. The reception was wonderful, and brought together a star studded list, including six past presidents (Drs. Kaplan, Barash, Roizen, Mora-Mangano, Gravlee) current SCA President Dr. Steven Konstadt and many “leaders of the future.” Thanks to all of our generous supporters, a total of $5,700 was raised in one evening, and will go to support the Kaplan Fund.
Tuesday, Earl Wynands Lecture: On Tuesday, attendees were taken to the heights of Everest by Dr. Michael Grocott, the first Earl Wynands lecturer, supported by the SCA Foundation. Over a five year period, Dr. Grocott and his band of ambitious and fearless intensivists designed and implemented an amazing research project to study human adaptation to the atmospheric challenges presented by Mt. Everest. For more about Dr. Grocott’s research, visit www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/
