This year’s meeting was a bit different from previous years, with the addition of a three-day critical care tract of panels, a SOCCA co-sponsored panel in the non-critical care tract, and an ultrasound workshop presented by our SOCCA members.

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.

Our center has supported 43 patients with COVID-19 ARDS on ECMO. Of these, 8 cases (19%) were in peripartum women, and their rate of survival was 86%. Notable points regarding the pregnant cohort (4 patients) include the fact that all neonates born on ECMO were preterm and required intubation but ultimately survived.

“Mostly Dead is Slightly Alive” has been for more than 40 years the maxim for Dr. Lance B. Becker when somebody claims that a cardiac arrest (CA) patient is dead. We believe that our failure in improving outcomes in CA has grounds in the “myth of the single magic bullet.” For decades, the mainstream of resuscitation science was represented by unsuccessful clinical trials targeting single pathways while expecting miracles. Unfortunately, we have not had very positive outcomes and still we are questioning if epinephrine should be routinely used during cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Cardiac output monitoring is essential for understanding flow and pressure relationships in critically ill patients after cardiac surgery. While the Swan-Ganz catheter is the traditional gold standard, new technology has used relatively non-invasive methodology to estimate cardiac output. Long time interval (LTI) analysis of the arterial blood pressure waveform is one such method.

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.

An important and exciting role for Critical Care Anesthesiologists is the development and utilization of new tools and therapies to treat patients with severe, life-threatening injuries. It seems as though every time I round in the ICU, I encounter something new in one or more of my patients.

As a Critical Care Anesthesiologist, do you ever wonder what to say when the nurse asks you what blood pressure you want to target? Or do you ever wonder if all the effort you have put into resuscitating your patients is successful? Are you confused about how to use new and novel technologies to measure end-organ perfusion? Then you definitely need to attend this panel at the upcoming SOCCA 2019 Annual Meeting and Critical Care Update.

Many of us grew up in an era prior to the rise of social media and the continuous 24/7 availability that technologies provide (or inflict) on us. As a Critical Care Anesthesiologist, I work to provide the best care to my patients and social media may provide me with an opportunity to learn about new research and to interact with my peers and peer researchers in a more rapid and effective manner.

As Critical Care Anesthesiologists, we are responsible for diagnosing organ dysfunction, treating various pathologies, coordinating care with consultants and nurses, and communication with patients and their families. We support patients and families through the phases of illness and recovery, and, at times, we shepherd them through palliation and changes in goals of care.

Welcome to the SOCCA 2018 Annual Meeting and Critical Care Update, a meeting I am confident you will find rewarding with many valuable takeaways and networking opportunities. The members of the SOCCA Committee on Education, Drs. Adam S. Evans, Sheila Pai Cole, and Peter Von Homeyer, have developed a cutting-edge education program, addressing the latest advances in critical care and investigating the most pressing issues in anesthesiology.

The attendees of the SOCCA Annual Meeting will have the opportunity to take advantage of a special Aligned Meeting and SOCCA Focus on Critical Care Day on Saturday, April 28, complimentary as part of their registration fee. Thought leaders in anesthesiology will present a wide selection of robust education sessions, highlighting pioneering topics in anesthesia and celebrating advances in education, science, research and the art of anesthesiology.