SCA Celebrates 25 Years

2003 marks the 25th anniversary of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA), a benchmark that was celebrated by a gala dinner/dance during its Annual Meeting in April 2003 in Miami Beach, Florida. SCA’s current membership includes more than 7,600, with 1,256 international members. The mission of SCA — to facilitate education, research and clinical excellence in the fields of cardiovascular and thoracic anesthesia — is supported by a robust array of activities.

SCA continues to offer a diverse mixture of educational opportunities. The 2003 Annual Meeting in Miami Beach hosted 900 registrants, who shared a broad-based educational program and a research forum with 141 scientific abstracts. The 2004 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, will offer an equally outstanding range of educational sessions from April 24-28, 2004. The Sixth Annual Comprehensive Review and TEE Update attracted more than 600 registrants to San Diego, California, last February. A great strength of this meeting is its faculty, which includes prominent cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons as well as an outstanding group of cardiovascular anesthesiologists. The 2004 Comprehensive Review will again take place in San Diego from February 9-14, 2004.

The Eighth Annual Update on Cardiopulmonary Bypass last March in Snowmass, Colorado, covered issues on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and perioperative patient care for 224 registrants. Those who attend this meeting frequently praised the fact that both the faculty and the audience included a stimulating blend of anesthesiologists, perfusionists and cardiac surgeons. The 2004 CPB Update will again take place in Snowmass from March 14-20. SCA is collaborating with the Japan Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists to offer the Ninth International Congress of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia on September 9-12, 2004, in Tokyo.

The SCA Annual Monograph continues to serve as an excellent educational entitlement for SCA members. The 2003 monograph on perioperative organ protection, edited by Mark W. Newman, M.D., exemplifies the high quality of these publications. Additional details about SCA educational activities can be obtained at our Web site at <www.scahq.org>.

Despite two “false starts” in the form of rejections from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, SCA persists in its pursuit of accreditation for fellowship programs in cardiothoracic anesthesiology. Accreditation will provide strong curricular guidance and much-needed recognition for approximately 75 existing fellowship programs while preserving much of the educational flexibility that identifies individual programs. It is important for ASA members to understand that fellowship accreditation involves fellowship programs and does not involve or mandate subspecialty board certification in cardiothoracic anesthesiology.

Funding “starter” grants for early and mid-career investigators constitutes an important and relatively recent SCA activity. To date SCA has funded 40 research projects and hopes that its newly established research and education fund will grow to permit increasing support of scientific investigation in the future. Some of SCA’s research funding has been awarded in collaboration with the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER).

SCA enjoys its collegial relationship with ASA and other prestigious professional organizations. SCA appreciates its representation in the ASA House of Delegates and ASA President’s Forum and its Annual Meeting Breakfast Panel. SCA acknowledges and appreciates the responsiveness and effectiveness that the ASA Committee on Economics has demonstrated on reimbursement issues that especially impact SCA members. SCA also values longstanding professional relationships with the National Board of Echocardiography and the American Society of Echocardiography. SCA recently strengthened its ties to the American Heart Association (AHA) by increasing participation in several AHA councils and by agreeing to co-sponsor a panel discussion at the AHA Annual Meeting.

SCA recently renewed its longstanding journal relationship with the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), so Anesthesia & Analgesia will continue to serve as the official journal of SCA in years to come. SCA and IARS recently announced the appointment of SCA member Charles (Chuck) W. Hogue, M.D., as Assistant Editor for Cardiovascular Anesthesiology. In that capacity, Dr. Hogue will work closely with the associate editor for Cardiovascular Anesthesiology and SCA member Kenneth J. Tuman, M.D.

SCA values its continued association with ASA and invites ASA members to peruse our Web site <www.scahq.org> for additional information. For those ASA members who are not already SCA members, we invite you to attend our educational meetings. If patients with cardiovascular pathology constitute an important part of your clinical practice, you will likely enjoy SCA membership. Our Annual Meeting covers much that would interest even anesthesiologists who never set foot in a heart room.

Glenn P. Gravlee, M.D., Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Columbus, Ohio.