SleepTalker November 2015

   Three of our anesthesia faculty are members of our Institutional Ethics committee (IEC): Deborah Richman, Tracie Saunders and Arvind Chandrakantan. In the past we have also had a resident on the committee (Jonida Zeqo). We have all come to this position through different routes and we are all involved in Ethics at a local and national level. Deborah speaks at the PGA on DNR in the OR, and informed consent. Tracie and Arvind are co-authors of an Ethics chapter in Anesthesiology Clinics on Pre-operative Evaluation which will be published in early 2016. In addition to educational and administrative activities, the IEC offers an Ethics Consult Service. All 3 of us serve as Ethics consultants covering 2-3 months of Ethics call/year in teams with other members of the group. There is always a physician as part of the team.
   Our most common calls are related to miscommunication, not truly ethical in nature, but we are able to facilitate conflict resolution. Patient and staff or staff and staff cannot agree on the best course of action. Morally both may be correct – the Ethics team would mediate in an unbiased, non-judgmental way. Other ethics consults have to do with patient autonomy and capacity to consent to therapeutic or diagnostic interventions. End of life issues are also part of our regular practice.
   Anyone can call an Ethics consult: The patient, patient’s family, or any person in the health care team.
   To call a consult: Call the hospital operator and ask for the Ethics team to be paged. The beeper is carried 24/7 by 3-4 on call consultants at a time.

   The Ambulatory Surgery Center held a fundraiser for Seawolves United, Stony Brook's new athletic fund. They were the first campus group to do so. Dr. Paul Willoughby was the organizer for the event. Andrea Lebedinski, the Coordinator of Annual Giving and Branding for Stony Brook Athletics wrote "thank you for all you do and your departmental gift to Seawolves United! You are truly helping to transform the lives of our student-athletes!" Paul's comment was "We hope this will inspire other departments to contribute as well."

   Dr. Ruchir Gupta was awarded a $152,000 grant from Merck to study the effects of deep vs moderate neuromuscular blockade on peak airway pressures. This will be a single-center, prospective, randomized, assessor blinded, parallel group controlled trial. We wish to ascertain if a deep neuromuscular block will decrease the airway pressures in patients undergoing laparoscopic or robotic procedures compared to when these very same patients are under a moderate block. A reduction in airway pressures may lead to a decrease in the complications associated with elevated airway pressures including hypoxemia, total static lung compliance, alveolar edema, and long term morbidity. The deep neuromuscular block group will be maintained at PTC of 1 to 2 while the moderate neuromuscular block group will be maintained at the moderate block (1-2 twitches). Sugammadex will be administered for reversal.

   Dr. Richard Scriven commended Dr. Ron Jasiewicz on his performance during a pediatric case recently. "We had a 1 hour old infant that needed to come to the OR urgently for a gastroschisis with compromised bowel. We had a delay in the holding area because of room temp issues. The baby had a respiratory event requiring intubation in the holding area. Ron very smoothly put the baby on a patient food table (the type that goes across the bed), then took the NICU fellow through the intubation. Always maintains his very calm Ron demeanor. Makes me proud to be part of the team."

The department bid a fond farewell to Trish DeMartino. Trish spent nearly 11 years in our department. She and her husband will be moving south. Thanks for all you did for the department, Trish!

Marjorie Lundgren is our new Senior Grants Manager. Marjorie has a Masters degree in Business Administration and has 15 years of experience in administering grants at Stony Brook. She is fluent in many acronyms including: FAR, HIPAA, eRA, CDMRP, FASTLANE, eBRAP and PIAI. In addition to her scientific grant writing expertise, she also writes grants for the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association. Welcome to the department, Marjorie!

Snake Pit Hallowe'en Party!!

Resident Samir Shah sent this picture of some Residents and Attendings at the ASA Meeting in San Diego last month.

The 45th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience took place in Chicago from Oct 17-21. There were three poster presentations authored by members of the department.

   Josh Undari, the son of Lisa Undari, is propelling his high school volleyball team, the Eastport-South Manor Sharks, to a stunning season! In the Sharks' Oct 8 match against Northport, Josh totaled 19 assists, 10 digs and 7 kills. The Sharks won 25-23, 25-15, 25-18 that night to improve their season record to 8-1. The team won last season with their Class B status and moved up this year to Class A. Josh noted that the team "came in as underdogs" but have now "made a name for ourselves". At right, Josh is shown going up for one of his kills. Photos and the description of the match appeared in the Oct. 9 issue of Newsday.

   If you find this swing, please don't sit on it - it's a work of art!