The SOCCA Service Chiefs’ Advisory Council (SCAC) aims to include representatives from every organization with an active anesthesiology critical care practice, specifically the one or two individuals with the broadest and most directly relevant administrative purview from each organization.

The strength of SOCCA is the wealth of talent and energy of its members. One of the ways to serve the Society is through volunteer activities. The SOCCA Nominations Committee annually evaluates nominees and develops an election ballot for available Officer and Director positions. This election cycle we will be electing our Secretary (2-year term) and two members for the Board of Directors (3-year term). Further details about the governance structure of SOCCA are described in our Society Bylaws.

Since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, there has been exponential growth in the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe cardiopulmonary disease.¹ The increased utilization of ECMO has allowed the management of more complex and severe diseases, pushing the boundaries of critical care medicine (CCM) as a specialty. However, this increase in ECMO use means that more intensivists are likely to encounter and care for patients with ECMO, necessitating the evolution and standardization of specialized training in this field.

Dr. Teresa Mulaikal, MD, FASE, is a cardiothoracic and critical care anesthesiologist, practicing at Columbia University in New York. Tess Russell, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, is a Texas transplant to New York City.

One Year (and Counting!) of Action and Engagement

With the Women in Critical Care (WICC) section’s one-year anniversary, we presented several initiatives accomplished in the past year at the SOCCA 2023 annual business meeting. We have shared several Interchange articles, Fireside chats, and two webinars that have been well received—one on Wellness and a recent webinar on strategies to enhance women applicants in CCM.

February 3rd marks Elizabeth Blackwell’s birthday. Dr. Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910) was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the UK. In addition to being an academic infectious disease specialist, she was an advocate for social justice and equity for women. She founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857 along with her sister Emily, and she played a significant role in the American Civil War by organizing nurses and educating women and girls. It is important when looking at history to include the contributions of Black women physicians who have equally contributed in the struggle to achieve the successes of today. In the book ‘Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century’, Jasmine Brown (Beacon Press, January 24, 2023) shares the incredible stories of nine pioneering Black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a Black woman first entered medical school. The stories of Dr. Rebecca Crumpler, Dr. Edith Jones, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders inspire and serve as a source of motivation to many young physicians on this Women Physician’s Day, when we celebrate the accomplishments of women doctors before us, and their struggles. We have come a long way since the days of these pioneering women physicians. However, much work remains to be done, and WICC and SOCCA hope to play an essential role in closing this gap.

As a professional organization dedicated to the support and development of anesthesiologists who care for critically ill patients, SOCCA’s aims include fostering community and advocacy. SOCCA has therefore organized and promoted efforts to better understand the national anesthesiology critical care practice landscape. Two such efforts—respective surveys of the SOCCA and American Society of Anesthesiologists membership—have yielded valuable insights [1, 2]. However, our conceptualization of the national landscape remains incomplete. Organizational membership surveys, by definition, reach only members of those organizations and reflect only the responses of those who choose to participate, which serves to introduce bias. For example, compensation as self-reported in such surveys will be naturally weighted to reflect the prevailing standards at the institutions with the most respondents, and those standards themselves will be highly influenced by local or regional market forces and institutional culture.

Despite evolution in many areas of critical care medicine, refractory cardiopulmonary failure continues to have high morbidity and mortality. In patients with severe cardiopulmonary failure refractory to medical therapy, mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is more commonly being utilized for both short and long-term support. MCS for circulatory shock includes intraaortic balloon pump (IABP), minimally invasive percutaneous ventricular assist devices (pVADs, e.g., Impella), external and durable LVADs, and venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); venovenous ECMO is utilized for isolated pulmonary failure. MCS can salvage patients with severe disease to allow time for recovery, facilitate corrective procedures, or bridge to transplantation. The evolution of these therapies underscores the constantly evolving nature of critical care medicine and the importance of innovation in improving patient outcomes.

We hope you are well and have seen the new uploads on our Women in Critical Care website (SOCCA) and our column in the SOCCA Interchange. We are adding more content and intend to bring new Webinars, Fireside Chats, and—hopefully—some more creative content designed for the busy woman in CCM.

Disclaimer: This is a work product of Women in Critical Care and does not represent the views of the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists

Background: Despite the increasing percentage of female intensivists and their multifaceted involvement in healthcare over the last decades, to date, their representation in physician workforce, academic positions and leadership roles in critical care remains disproportionately low.

The strength of SOCCA is the wealth of talent and energy of its members. One of the ways to serve the Society is through volunteer activities. The SOCCA Nominations Committee annually evaluates nominees and develops an election ballot for available Officer and Director positions. This election cycle we will be electing 3 members for the Board of Directors (3-year term). Further details about the governance structure of SOCCA are described in our Society Bylaws.

SOCCA is pleased to announce the debut of the Innovators Award.

Created through a generous anonymous donation, we plan to award one deserving recipient $10,000 for a true innovation, that is, something that introduces a new device or technique, changes clinical practice, or could improve clinical outcomes. 

SOCCA is pleased to announce the debut of the Innovators Award. Created through a generous anonymous donation, we plan to award one deserving recipient $10,000 for a true innovation, that is, something that introduces a new device or technique, changes clinical practice or could improve clinical outcomes. The innovation should be expected to have an immediate effect on health care delivery. This award is an extension of the Society’s growing interests in research, education and engagement. We encourage interested members to apply.

The Research Committee would like to highlight some of the recent literature contributions of its members.

Meeting Updates

Women in Critical Care’s Mission Statement and Vision:

Mission: To provide a community of mentorship, sponsorship and support that promotes the recruitment, development, advancement, and well-being of women in Critical Care Anesthesiology.

Vision: To foster women leaders in Critical Care Anesthesiology.

The SOCCA Early Career Working Group held its first meeting on January 28, and it was a success! We discussed how we want to organize the group and what we hope to accomplish together. Our top priority will be to keep fellows and early career members engaged in the society. We are currently planning to organize several webinars, including advice for residents applying for fellowship, advice for fellows applying for jobs, and early-career guidance for fellows reaching the end of fellowship before starting their jobs.

We are pleased to announce the newly published SOCCA Parental Leave and Lactation Recommendations. This initiative was undertaken in hopes of providing support for intensivists who are new parents by birth or adoption and/or breast feeding. The document exemplifies the role SOCCA takes to support all intensivists in their personal endeavors, to enhance mental and physical health and well-being, and to continue championing women in critical care.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common form of sleep-related breathing disorder encountered in the perioperative setting. It is defined by recurrent upper airway collapse, potentially leading to decreased oxygen levels during sleep and an increased risk of long-term cardiovascular illness. While OSA is more prevalent in surgical candidates than in the general population, between 60-90% of patients remain undiagnosed.

Given the extraordinary disruption to training and medical practice caused by COVID-19, the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) has taken swift action to relax policies, offering increased flexibility for anesthesiologists. The Board has also worked to provide seamless access to educational and mental health resources for impacted physicians.

The evolution of critical care ultrasound in North America has been remarkable. Rapid technological advances have moved cardiac ultrasonography from the sole domain of cardiology and into the hands of the bedside intensivists. The increased availability of this disruptive technology, paired with an evolving appreciation of its applicability to the critically ill patient, have led to widespread adoption by intensivists across the nation.

At the most recent SOCCA Annual Meeting, it was my privilege to present the SOCCA Distinguished Service Award and the Hilmar Burchardi Award to two well-deserving SOCCA members. Below are transcripts from my presentation of these awards.

Nicholas Sadovnikoff, MD, FCCM, will receive the Shubin-Weil Master Clinician/Teacher: Excellence in Bedside Teaching Award at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) 48th Critical Care Congress during the American College of Critical Care Medicine Convocation/SCCM Awards Presentation held on Monday, February 18, 2019.

The National Board of Echocardiography (NBE) is ready to administer the very first edition of the Examination of Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography (CCEeXAM).

SOCCA wants to hear from you! We’ll be collecting feedback on how SOCCA can better serve its members. Keep on the lookout for the member survey—it’s coming out in July and one survey participant will be awarded a free 2019 Annual Meeting registration!

I wanted to provide an update on the ACCM fellowship match. The ACCM fellowship application process has been managed by SF Match for four match cycles now, and we are in the midst of our fifth. So far it has largely been viewed as successful, and most programs report seeing a larger number of applications since the match was instituted. At the time utilizing a match was agreed upon, many programs worried that they would lose applicants to the vagaries of the match who otherwise they would have been certain to recruit.