The Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists

It is an exhilarating time for SOCCA! I hope to see as many of you as possible at the 2024 annual meeting presented by IARS and SOCCA in Seattle on May 17-19. This is an excellent opportunity for SOCCA because we have more critical care educational content in this new format than we have ever had in any of our annual meetings.

The SOCCA membership committee had quite a busy year in 2023, and we are now working diligently with our new management team to continue to provide valuable programming for our members. The Early Career Intensivists group and the Physicians in Private Practice group are organizing their events for 2024.

The field of transplant surgery, with its roots traced back to the pioneering work of Sushruta in 600 BC, has undergone a remarkable evolution. On behalf of the SOCCA-SATA Work Group, this review focuses on transplant anesthesiology, a field of medicine that has played a pivotal role in transforming transplantation into a life-extending therapy for patients with end-organ failure. Advances in multidisciplinary collaboration and research have improved surgical success and patient outcomes.

The SOCCA Early Career Intensivists group welcomed Dr. Gerald Maccioli this past November to learn about contract negotiations. Dr. Maccioli is an accomplished anesthesiologist with multiple leadership roles throughout his career, including being the former President of SOCCA and Chair of the ASA section on education and research. He is currently the Vice President of Medical Affairs for the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, CMO and Board Advisor of Quick’rCare, CMO of Care Angel, and CMO of Moterum.

Need answers to pressing questions in clinical practice, career advancement, research, work-life balance, or academic journey? Explore the WICC’s peer mentorship model – the consultancy – which may help in answering these queries. Starting on March 28, WICC will present a quarterly one-hour Fireside Consultancy style hour.

We present a 36-year-old woman, BMI 19, with a history of deep vein thrombosis (on Apixaban), rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease status post previous left hemicolectomy,11 years ago and completion proctocolectomy with end ileostomy ,10 years ago Furthermore, the patient was dependent on total parenteral nutrition given chronic entero-vaginal and enterocutaneous fistulas. The patient was admitted with evidence of a pelvis abscess, surgical intervention was deemed necessary. An exploratory laparotomy with small bowel resection, fistula takedown with an entero-entero anastomosis was performed. The post-operative course was complicated by a pelvic enteric leak, resulting in another exploratory laparotomy, small bowel resection with double barrel jejunostomy. Intra-abdominal wound cultures revealed Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci and Enterobacter cloacae, hence Meropenem and Daptomycin were initiated.

Join us for the 2024 Annual Meeting, presented by IARS and SOCCA in Seattle, May 17-19. The education committee has created an outstanding program with a critical-care track running concurrently throughout the meeting. The format and content of the meeting look extraordinary, with more critical-care content than we have ever had before. There will be three SOCCA-sponsored breakfasts, and all committees and subcommittees will have the opportunity to meet in person throughout the meeting. In addition, a dedicated SOCCA session will run on Sunday afternoon until about 5PM, including additional educational panels, the SOCCA awards presentations, and the SOCCA business meeting. I hope everyone stays for the entire duration of this exciting meeting.

Our committee has experienced a dynamic year, marked by significant accomplishments. In September 2023, we released one of our largest issues to commemorate Women in Medicine Month, featuring insightful contributions from several of our dedicated members. The response was exceptional, reflecting our commitment to celebrating diversity and excellence in our field.

As the new year approaches, the education committee would like to announce some new and exciting changes to the structure of the education committee, as well as our offerings for 2024.  As you will read in this month’s Interchange, the SOCCA component of the 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle will be undergoing significant changes. We are excited that we will now be able to incorporate three days’ worth of educational offerings as a part of the combined IARS/SOCCA meeting. With this change likely to last beyond 2024, the Annual Meeting subcommittee will be continuing our work on grading and developing annual meeting content for years to come.

We would like to share with the SOCCA membership some of the changes around the annual meeting for 2024 as well as for future meetings. Unlike previous years where SOCCA had a separate meeting (a day before the IARS meeting) with a sprinkle of SOCCA sessions during the IARS meeting, the 2024 annual meeting in Seattle will be a combined IARS/SOCCA meeting. What this entails is an integration of SOCCA sessions within the IARS meeting, and the creation of a separate “critical care track” exclusively for content related to critical care medicine. This would ensure that SOCCA educational sessions will run throughout the duration of the meeting. In addition to the critical care medicine related education content throughout the IARS/SOCCA annual meeting, a dedicated half-day session of exclusive SOCCA content is also being planned after the IARS meeting ends. We believe that the SOCCA-only half-day meeting on Sunday, May 18 would allow us to present the various SOCCA awards as well as host the SOCCA business meeting and may provide an opportunity to accommodate additional education sessions. Discussions around the feasibility and logistics of this additional session are currently underway.