The Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists

As educators, we strive for a mindset of innovation in both how and what we teach in Critical Care Medicine. The intensivists of tomorrow are expected to be clinically excellent, adept in responding to changes in the healthcare environment and also competent in the administrative arena.

With the holiday season upon us, in the US and globally, ICUs (Intensive Care Units) are still struggling with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in our history, hospital systems are forced to scramble to allocate scarce resources such as nursing, respiratory therapists, ICU beds, oxygenation, and drug treatments that lack adequate amount of literature support.

Dr. Pinxia Chen currently practices at Saint Luke’s University Health System in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has been with her group for five years. Dr. Chen is originally from the South Jersey/Philadelphia area and started her career with an anesthesiology residency at Penn State Medical Center in Hershey and a fellowship in critical care at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Chen stated that she then looked for academic jobs with a strong anesthesiology presence in the ICU. However, the academic jobs available in her preferred geographic location left something to be desired and her current position in private practice did allow for strong clinical involvement by anesthesiologists in the critical care setting. When Dr. Chen started there were only two people in the group with formal critical care training. That number has grown considerably since that time. 

Peter Safar, the creator of the first intensive care unit (ICU) in the United States, father of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, pioneer of the modern ambulance design, and three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize, repeatedly delivered a very simple message: physician-scientists are in danger of extinction.1

Welcome to the Fall edition of Interchange! First and foremost, on behalf of the Society, I would like to congratulate all those young colleagues that have selected Anesthesia/Critical Care as their subspecialty. This issue is dedicated to you, our newest members.

I would like to start by saying it is an honor to take over the Communications Committee at SOCCA and subsequently as editor of Interchange. I have to give immense credit to my immediate predecessor Craig Jabaley for continuing to maintain—and even expand—the committee’s roles throughout the initial waves of the COVID pandemic. I hope to continue that process and build upon the foundations provided to better serve our organization. To that end we have created two subcommittees to better focus on the varying roles of the Communications Committee. These two subcommittees will focus on Twitter and SOCCA Interchange / Drip respectively. I would encourage any of our members who don’t yet follow us on Twitter (@SOCCA_CritCare) to do so as well as frequent our blog (SOCCA Drip) to stay up to date on all things SOCCA including webinars, meetings, and organizational opportunities.

Read members-only job posts—including roles with University of Washington, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Albany Medical Center—at SOCCA’s Job Board.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on critical care education and fellowship recruitment. Adherence to the social distancing guidelines required the Critical Care Fellowship applicants and the fellowship programs to adapt to the world of virtual interviewing for the 2020-2021 recruitment season. Initially, virtual interviewing was envisioned as a temporary solution to the ongoing pandemic with the hope of returning to in-person interviews for the next recruitment season. Unfortunately, virtual interviewing is likely the new norm for critical care fellowship interviewing, given the unrelenting pandemic. Given this new reality, fellowship programs must understand the advantages and disadvantages from an applicant’s perspective for this new era in the fellowship recruiting process.  

The COVID-19 social distancing guidelines have required the fellowship programs and the applicants to adapt to the world of virtual interviewing. The virtual interviewing process has undoubtedly been an uncharted path for the vast majority of applicants and the fellowship programs. Here, I provide advice to prospective interviewees and fellowship programs on navigating the world of virtual interviewing as the virtual interviewing format is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

On behalf of the SOCCA Education Committee, we would like to extend our thanks to our new members. It is heartwarming to see such an overwhelming enthusiasm to advance the educational mission of SOCCA. As SOCCA membership grows, the Education Committee has realigned its structure to create working groups, dedicated to meeting the education needs of our SOCCA members and the anesthesiology critical care community at large. The last few months have been a testing time for any practicing intensivist in the United States. We have been working overtime fighting the delta COVID sweeping through the country. Despite this, the SOCCA Education Committee aptly supported by the rest of the SOCCA membership has continued to produce remarkable new critical care education content. We are deeply appreciative and truly admire each of you as you deal with this once in a lifetime ‘ICU pandemic.’ Our update highlights our working groups that have been extremely busy in developing diverse educational content and adapting to the ever-changing landscape imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.