The Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists

Read members-only job posts—including roles with the Department of Anesthesiology at The University of Vermont /University of Vermont Medical Center and St. Luke’s University Health Network—at SOCCA’s Job Board. If you would like to post a job, please email a short description and/or PDF flyer including location, contact information, and closing date to SOCCA Society Director, Vivian Abalama, IOM, CAE at vabalama@iars.org.

Interchange seeks to deliver timely, relevant, and high-quality content to SOCCA members. Contributions from members are not only welcome but essential to ensure that Interchange meets these goals. If you are interested in authoring content concerning clinical challenges, emerging research findings, member accomplishments, or anything of general interest to the membership, please reach out to vabalama@iars.org.

It is my hope that this issue of the Interchange finds you well. 2020 promises to be a year in which SOCCA will continue to evolve and advance the profession of anesthesiologist intensivists.

It is my pleasure to take the helm of editing Interchange, but I must first acknowledge the antecedent efforts of Kevin Hatton. Kevin advanced the content, consistency, and formatting of the newsletter while also soliciting contributions both from the Society’s leadership and membership, alike. It will certainly be my goal to maintain forward momentum in these areas.

Have you visited SOCCA’s Job Board recently? Read members-only job posts—including a position with the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine—at SOCCA’s Job Board.

At the recent SOCCA Board meeting prior to the annual Anesthesiology conference, we continued to explore means by which to grow and sustain the organization’s membership. Understanding our membership patterns, and the challenges our members face, is key. One critical issue that we have identified is member loss during transition periods: namely residency to fellowship and fellowship to faculty.

There has been a lot happening at the program director level over the last year, and that is by and large substantively good news. One critical topic that bears reporting is the outcome of the Anesthesiology Critical Care Fellowship match that took place in the spring of 2019. The associated trends here bear close review as the news is not entirely positive.

The restriction of trainee work hours in 2006 transformed post-graduate medical education. While intended to promote work-life balance and wellness, the undesired consequence was limitation of experiential clinical learning opportunities. Simulation Based Medical Education (SBME) has helped fill this gap by providing an opportunity for deliberate practice with immediate feedback, enhancing acquisition of medical knowledge and skills.

The aerospace industry is rightly recognized as a model for the utility of high-fidelity simulation, and the medical education community has sought to apply and extend this experience. However, a staggering amount of research, engineering, and resources underlies the success of aerospace simulation, which is likely underappreciated by physicians.

Since the first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor performed in 1963 by a Belgian surgeon, the topic of organ donation and brain-dead donors has often been a moral and ethical impasse amongst the public as well as physicians. Intensivists, along with Neurologists, have become the primary referring physicians for these donations.