SleepTalker December 2017

T.J. Gan, MD, MBA, MHS, FRCA

    It is with great pleasure that I announce Dr. Ramon Abola as the new Co-Chief of the department's Quality Assurance Committee. Together with Dr. Rishimani Adsumelli, he will serve as the departmental QA liaison to the hospital. Dr. Linda Cimino will continue her role to support the QA/QI endeavor of the department.

I would like to thank Dr. Syed Shah for his service as the co-Chief of the QA Committee over the past 6 years. He has done a tremendous job and I have nothing but high praises for his diligent and expert work. This will enable him to focus on new administrative responsibilities.

We look forward to supporting Ramon in this new role.

   Dr. Joy Schabel has been elected as an Associate Member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA). Associate members of the AUA are among a select group of individuals recognized by their peers to have made distinguished contributions to anesthesiology, teaching, or research. Congratulations!

   Dr. T.J. Gan was elected as a Council Member of the Association of Academic Anesthesiology Chairs (AAAC/SAAAPM). Congratulations!

Deborah Richman, MB, ChB, FFA(SA)

   The 24th International Conference of the Israeli Society of Anesthesiologists (ICISA) was held in Tel Aviv in November. I presented our Clinical Pathway for the management of patients with LVADs for other surgeries in the oral abstracts section.

    The conference was excellent, the weather on the Tel Aviv beachfront was warm and sunny and the hectic 5 day trip included a visit with our 18 year old son, Micha, who is studying in Israel.

    Of course all my colleagues from Ha’Emek Hospital where I previously worked were there – a happy reunion. I met with my department chair, Shai Katz who is now head of Rambam Hospital Anesthesia and Ha’Emek’s current chair, Michael Rudin who was a resident of mine (yes we are all aging, but it is good to see mentees doing well). Another surprise – a high school friend, David Hoppenstein, is head of Peds anesthesia at Meir Hospital – so lots of catching up.

    Highlights of the program, and it was certainly different to a US conference, were Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Blood transfusion/ anemia – which is a big focus in Europe currently. Not one talk on OSA or obesity! – Both of which are less prevalent in Israel and Europe.

    There were also a number of ICU medicine talks as ICU is a big component of anesthesia practice in Israel. An interesting trade item was a robot (see photo) that can be controlled from home (or elsewhere) that walks (rolls) around your patient and with its swivel head (screen) can show you the patient’s face, the monitor, the family or anything else. It also has ultrasound and stethoscope probes attached for a nurse or resident to place on patient and you can look/listen remotely - Telemedicine 2017! Not sure about OR use just yet.

    Our own Marty Griffel was there, as was a Three Village Schools grad – Sarah Goldhaber-Fiebert (now in Stanford CA) speaking on emergency manuals.

    And the conference food – mostly healthy Mediterranean diet with lots of cappuccinos and espressos, and beer every afternoon - was delish. Overall highly recommended – but you have to wait – it is held only once every 3 years!

   Department members will be making presentations and moderating sessions at the 71st PostGraduate Assembly in Anesthesiology. The meeting will be held in New York City from December 8-12.
   Please visit our Presenters while you are at the PGA. And, don't forget to take photos of department members standing in front of posters! We can use these in January's issue of SleepTalker, on our website and in the library display case.

Melissa Day, CRNA

    Please join me in welcoming Jennifer Rosales to the Anesthesia Tech team. Jennifer has been a CNA since 2009 and has worked in the Emergency Department for the past 7 years.

Joseph Gnolfo III, MS, CRNA

    Please join me in welcoming Sabine Garnier, CRNA to the team. Sebine is an experienced CRNA from Kings County.

Jean Abbott, BS, MT

    I am thrilled to announce that my daughter, Caroline Cooper, is engaged to marry Adam May! Caroline is a paralegal, and Adam is a NYPD officer. The couple are planning a September 2018 wedding at a New Jersey vineyard, and will reside in Staten Island.

Linda Cimino, EdD, CPNP, ANP, CCRC, CHSE

   As doctoral committee chair, it is with great pleasure that I announce Dr. Lorraine Danowski’s successful dissertation defense for the PhD degree in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences on 11/27/17. Lorraine’s work, Quality of Care and Cost Differences in Models of Care for the Patient with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (PALS), is groundbreaking in that it is the first study to develop classifications of teams as comparison groups for outcome assessment. The literature states the driving forces for team collaboration are; the need to care for chronically ill patients, sponsorship by professional organizations, safety and quality initiatives and health care policy. Restraining forces for team collaboration are; lack of expertise, cultural silos, the existing academic infrastructure and reimbursement. One of the issues in identifying the potential gain in outcomes from using a team approach has been the definition of the team. Prior studies examined relevant measures of team collaboration predominantly from an inpatient setting. This study focused on the outpatient setting and applied novel methodologies to uncover team types and how they affect outcomes. Using survey design, and building on the relevant literature, attributes of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) team were examined in order to classify homogeneous types among ALS clinics. These findings were used to assess outcomes based on attributes within the team environment.

• Mraovic B, Simurina T, Gan TJ. Nitrous oxide added at the end of isoflurane anesthesia hastens early recovery without increasing the risk for postoperative nausea and vomiting: a randomized clinical trial. Can J Anaesth. 2017 Nov 17
• Pagnotti GM, Atkinson RM, Romeiser J, Akalin A, Korman MB, Shroyer KR. B7-H4 is Inversely Correlated With T-Cell Infiltration in Clear Cell but Not Serous or Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol. 2017 Oct 20.

Cape Cod Dock