The Mission of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists

he mission statement of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA) is: “The SCA, an international organization of physicians, promotes excellence in patient care through education and research in perioperative care for patients undergoing cardiothoracic and vascular procedures.” This message to ASA members will summarize how our Society is approaching its mission in 2006.

Education
In my last message (January 2006), I focused on the intense effort by SCA to achieve subspecialty status for cardiothoracic anesthesiology. This goal has been achieved, and training program directors can download a “Program Information File” (PIF) from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and apply for accreditation of their training program. The timing will allow fellows who have completed an anesthesiology residency to enter accredited one-year programs in cardiothoracic anesthesiology in 2007.

From its inception, SCA has strived to produce the highest quality educational meetings for its members. In 2006 we have held three national meetings and are co-sponsors of a fourth, the 10th International Congress of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, August 27-30. The combined attendance of our three North American meetings is close to 1,500, with a steady overall increase over the years. In addition to our Annual Meeting, we offer what most would consider to be the “premiere” one-week course in perioperative transesophageal echocardiography and our “cardiopulmonary bypass” meeting where both surgeons and perfusionists sit on the program committee and help us to design a winter “ski” meeting attractive to members’ perioperative teams. This meeting, held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on March 12-17, 2006, had almost 300 attendees. I encourage all ASA members to visit our Web site <www.scahq.org> to view details of the meeting in Prague this August as well as our 2007 meetings.

SCA also is very active in the use of printed materials to achieve its educational mission. We have worked hard with our journal Anesthesia & Analgesia to develop a “journal within a journal,” where practitioners interested in cardiothoracic and vascular topics can easily find information relevant to their practice. Our Section Editor for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Education, Martin J. London, M.D., is continuing to develop key educational contributions, including state-of-the-art reviews, echocardiography case reports (“echo rounds”) and pro/con debates, which will be regular features. Dr. London is working closely with Associate Editor-in-Chief Charles W. Hogue, M.D., and our new editor, Steven L. Shafer, M.D., to put a new face on the journal and to make it the most attractive and widely read journal of both our subspecialty and the specialty in general. A controversial statement for the ASA NEWSLETTER! Dr. London and Dr. Hogue are promoting participation by SCA members in many roles for the journal, as the new masthead page indicates.

Two educational benefits of SCA membership over and above reduced registration rates to our meetings and receiving our journal are the newsletter and the annual monograph. The newsletter continues to be both a source of Society information and an educational tool where members can read reviews of articles by SCA members from leading journals as well as read pro/con debates on current topics. The annual monograph is developed from the featured session at our Annual Meeting and has recently made a transition to DVD-ROM format. This year’s monograph, produced under the direction of David J. Cook, M.D., is titled “Innovations in Cardiovascular Care” and features state-of-the art presentations on devices in interventional cardiology, innovations in electrophysiology and new techniques in vascular surgery.

Research
Our second “core” mission is to promote excellence in care through research. As a relatively small Society with modest resources, we are, of course, unable to provide major funding for research; however, we do make available a number of starter and mid-level grants every year. The details of these grants can be found on our Web site. Depending on a variety of factors, we award between two and four grants annually, $20,000 per year for two years. We also contribute $35,000 annually to the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research to co-sponsor an annual research award in the field of cardiothoracic anesthesiology. We receive approximately 200 abstract submissions for our Annual Meeting, with accepted abstracts being published in the journal. We strive to provide discussion opportunities for abstract presenters and have initiated a “mentorship” program for young investigators who present at our meeting.

The SCA Board of Directors has been actively discussing a potentially greater role in supporting research and has convened a task force under the direction of Nancy A. Nussmeier, M.D., and Glenn P. Gravlee, M.D., to develop the concept of a fundraising drive to achieve this goal. We are now close to initiating a $2 million campaign specifically to “jump start” some new initiatives in research in our subspecialty. The SCA Foundation is now a reality — we have a full-time director of development, and I think ASA members will be excited by the ideas that will be coming from Dr. Nussmeier and Dr. Gravlee’s task force.

Our goal is to make a meaningful contribution to the safety of care in the cardiothoracic operating room through the development of key research initiatives. Stay tuned.

James G. Ramsay M.D., is Professor of Anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.