SOCCA Clinical Practice Committee (CPC) Workgroup Selections

The Clinical Practice Committee (CPC) of the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA) was created to foster collaboration across subspecialties and enhance engagement among SOCCA members. Established as an ad-hoc committee, the CPC aims to integrate various subspecialties into joint projects with SOCCA, thereby broadening the scope of expertise and enriching the collective knowledge within the society. Gozde Demiralp, as the Chair of CPC, along with Alok Gupta as the Vice Chair, will continue to expand and develop the robust structure of CPC.

CPC Workgroups

Currently, there are seven specialized workgroups. Each workgroup aims to focus on a subspecialty or necessity within the scope of a critical care anesthesiologist.

The purpose is to see if these workgroups can sustain interest and expand into a committee structure or if they will be time-limited for a specific purpose and rest after achieving a certain goal.

Quality and Patient Safety Workgroup

The Quality and Patient Safety Workgroup aims to advance perioperative patient safety for all critically ill patients. They plan to bring ICU professionals interested in this arena to share resources for quality improvement (QI) projects, QI research, and hopefully be the network for QI and safety protocols for all critical care providers via creation of a QI library. This workgroup is led by Somnath Bose as Chair and Joy Chen as Vice Chair.

MCS/ECMO/CTICU Workgroup

The MCS/ECMO/CTICU Workgroup of CPC/SOCCA is uniquely positioned to spearhead the development of a comprehensive educational framework and curriculum for the management of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) within both critical care and perioperative medicine. The first major focus of this workgroup will be to create an educational curriculum for mechanical circulatory support management for critical care medicine fellows and intensivists eager to gain expertise. The plan is to collaborate with ELSO in creating multitude of workshops / courses / training modules that target current or future critical care physicians specifically and is accessible to all CCM fellowship program sizes and locations. By establishing this, they hope to contribute to a standardized education to ensure that all CCM fellowship graduates achieve competency in MCS management. This workgroup is chaired by Lovkesh Arora, who is accompanied by Laura Sutherland as Vice Chair.

Neurocritical Care Workgroup

The Neurocritical Care Workgroup is dedicated to targeting an audience of specialists who primarily care for critically ill patients with acute neurological conditions. They will be seeking collaboration with the Society of Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC). The aim is to learn from each other’s practice models and present a SWOT analysis report to a larger interest group. Discovering neurologist-neurosurgeon-anesthesia intensivist ratios within fellowship programs is another interesting topic that this workgroup would like to invest in. This workgroup is being developed by Ozan Akca (Chair) and Elizabeth Mahanna (Vice Chair).

Obstetric-Critical Care Workgroup

Obstetrical emergencies are every intensivist’s biggest scare. The Obstetric-Critical Care Workgroup will be dedicating their effort to collaborate with Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) resources while concentrating on the unique challenges faced by pregnant patients in critical care settings. This group works on developing guidelines and best practices for managing severe obstetric complications, ensuring both maternal and fetal safety. This group is led by Ioannis Angelidis (Chair) and Emily Naoum (Vice Chair).

Transplant Anesthesia Workgroup

The Transplant Anesthesia Workgroup collaborates closely with the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (SATA) to develop educational materials and clinical practice guidelines. Their goal within 1-2 years will be to enhance the knowledge base and clinical skills of professionals across the entire spectrum of transplant perioperative care. They aim to achieve this by creating comprehensive educational resources and establishing evidence-based guidelines to improve patient outcomes in all phases of transplant perioperative care. This workgroup is led by Dr. Ranjit Deshpande as Chair and Megan Rashid as Vice Chair.

Physiologically Difficult Airway Taskforce

The Physiologically Difficult Airway Taskforce was created by Drs. Kunal Karamchandani and Craig Jabaley and expanded into an international expert group. This phenomenal group is publishing their first consensus statement on airway management for critically ill patients, and they delivered a fantastic panel at the SOCCA/IARS 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle. Again, at this meeting, it was requested that this taskforce continues as a workgroup due to overwhelming interest and ongoing projects. Current chairs of the PDA Workgroup are Kunal Karamchandani and Craig Jabaley, along with Mary Jarzebowski as Vice Chair.

Global Critical Care Workgroup

The newest workgroup of CPC is the Global Critical Care Workgroup, which extends SOCCA’s reach beyond national boundaries, addressing global disparities in critical care. The aim is to bring together an already enlarging group of anesthesia intensivists for global projects while trying to recruit more members. This group promotes international collaboration, resource sharing, and the development of universally applicable critical care practices, as well as creating awareness of increasing global fellowships. This group will be started by Vanessa Moll (Chair) and Ana Crawford (Vice Chair).