SOCCA Education Committee Update: “Zooming” Along To 2021

What a year! In continuing to improve well-organized bookcases and other real or virtual backdrops, we have clearly embraced the new normal. While the disappointment of missing real human contact associated with education is difficult to quantitate, there is certainly a silver lining to be appreciated. Developing and delivering didactic materials during a pandemic has required us to dig deep into the reserves of our creativity, and the results have been excellent to say the least. Look at the ease of access, wide outreach, and availability of speakers from all over the world, to name just a few benefits. Today we can proudly say that the SOCCA Education Committee, in conjunction with the membership of this incredible group, has established just the same.

Once the 2020 Annual Meeting was canceled and its 2021 successor was designated as fully virtual, there was a lot of thinking to do. We had to go back to the drawing board quickly and rechart a course that would guide us towards remotely delivering the same high-quality content found at an in-person meeting. On behalf of the committee, we are thrilled to announce that the 2021 Annual Meeting schedule has been finalized. The date is set for the 14th of May, 2021, and the preliminary program is available at: https://meetings.iars.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SOCCA-Web-Program-12.1.20.pdf

We received an unprecedentedly high number of panel proposals for the 2021 meeting. For this, the Education Committee thanks all of you, who, despite being the busiest you have ever been, came out and provided us the opportunity to look at so many diverse and unique proposals. We promise you that the 2021 Annual Meeting will be worth every minute of your time. Having said that, the committee has also made a constant effort to organize education with a focus on year-round activities. The monthly SOCCA webinar series is one such initiative. These webinars are off to a flying start, and we will continue to further develop them. The plans, as they currently stand, call for about 10 more webinars in 2021, some of which will feature proposals originally made for the Annual Meeting. We are also continually reviewing webinar content and taking in all the feedback that has been sent our way. Additionally, other educational endeavors are in the pipeline and nearly ready to roll out. These include select journal article reviews by experts within the committee and a series of video lecture series that will be featured on the SOCCA website as enduring content. On that note, our CME reviewers have worked incredibly hard, and continue to do so, to offer CME content for these and other new efforts. Please stay tuned and watch @SOCCA_CritCare and the SOCCA Drip for more news.

Work continues on the “Standardized National Critical Care Curriculum for Anesthesiology Residents.” This project, a collaboration between SOCCA and Anesthesia Education Toolbox (AET), will develop a curriculum to be disseminated and available to all residency programs. Curriculum development will follow Kern’s method, including an initial needs assessment and content mapping completed through an online Delphi process. The 1^st round of the Delphi process is complete (with thanks to all who contributed), and after completion of the 3^rd round, we will begin developing the curriculum outline. We will be looking for intensivists from across the country to help develop this curriculum and maintain its relevance.

As background, AET is an educational platform with a mission “to collaboratively develop high quality peer-reviewed educational resources that can be shared by anesthesia training programs at the lowest possible cost.” They currently have 63 academic training programs participating. The critical care curriculum is currently the least developed of all the subspecialty content, and this partnership will be mutually beneficial to both groups. AET benefits from SOCCA’s reputation, expertise, and access to educators. SOCCA benefits from publicity and promotion through AET, the educational platform, and AET’s expertise and experience in curriculum development. If you have any further questions about the project, please email Jason Brainard (jason.brainard@ucdenver.edu).

Humankind has learned a lot from COVID-19. One of the biggest lessons learned is that all of us – no matter where we work, what we do, and how much we work – have been affected by this virus. Whether at the personal or professional level, the scars are not yet even beginning to heal. The emotional toll of witnessing these ongoing difficulties daily have led to the biggest scars. If ever, now is the time to stand with each other. An encouraging phone call, or a message to say ‘hi,’ all count now in ways never felt before. Think about each other, and take the time reach out. And thank you for helping us build an ever-stronger SOCCA education mission. Stay safe.

Authors

Peter von Homeyer, MD, FASE

SOCCA Education Committee Chair

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington

Ashish Khanna, MD, FCCP, FCCM

2021 Annual Meeting Chair and SOCCA Education Committee Vice-Chair

Wake Forest

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Jason Brainard, MD

University of Colorado

Denver, Colorado