April 2024 President's Update
Published on: April 03, 2024
April may start with an April Fools’ prank but at the NCS we are seriously at work on our year-long mission to go Beyond the Horizon. In this message, we will focus continued attention on the NCS strategic plan and showcase strides made toward our new initiatives.
As you may know, the fourth aim of the NCS strategic plan focuses on advocacy and relationship building in the field of neurocritical care. Advocacy plays a crucial role in advancing our principles aimed at enhancing patient outcomes across diverse settings and specialties that intersect with neurocritical care patients. Broadly, our strategy aims to engage like-minded stakeholders in the process of discussion, dialogue and exchange of concepts and ideas. It also focuses on establishing consensus documents, statements or initiatives that can move the field forward in a deliberate and careful manner. Advocacy requires that members reach out to other organizations in a respectful yet assertive manner to have meaningful, and sometimes difficult, conversations.
A Focus on Advocacy: Collaboration With Neurosurgery
One example of our current advocacy efforts includes outreach to neurosurgery and our neurosurgery colleagues who are interested in neurocritical care. The joint section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons, together with NCS leaders, have outlined a multi-step plan to build closer collaboration. This includes plans for consensus articles, development of guidelines topics, planning integrated presentations and advocating to national organizations with regards to training, certification and accreditation principles.
The NCS leadership has had many meaningful meetings with neurosurgery leaders and look forward to a closer relationship to foster outcomes that are of mutual interest. NCS has also worked closely with the American Academy of Neurology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and other organizations to discuss important topics such as the new guidelines for brain death determination, certification and accreditation, educational platforms, (e.g. focused subspecialty sessions at large international meetings) and clinical practice guidelines.
A Focus on Advocacy: International Collaboration
NCS features global partners worldwide, along with regional chapters of our organization. Our global partners are typically national or transnational organizations of neurocritical care in diverse regions of the world that focus on education and policy development.
We collaborate with over 30 global partners spanning regions across the world, encompassing high-, middle- and low-income countries. Our partners represent diverse populations with varied availability of resources. Many of these international partners have been showcased as faculty members at the NCS Annual Meeting, while we have also extended our expertise globally by serving as faculty members for international gatherings. We are actively developing plans to establish an international council of advisors drawn from our regional chapters this year. This initiative aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas and strategies among our global networks. Of note, we will once again hold an international reception at our annual meeting in San Diego.
There are several international meetings of importance that I would like to highlight include the NCS Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional chapter meeting at the Emirates Critical Care Conference (May 8-9, Dubai). This will feature multidisciplinary education and brain death determination courses. Additional international meetings include the Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine’s 44th Annual Congress (April 24-26, Seoul), the Asia Pacific Neurocritical Care Conference (June 28-30, Kuching, Malaysia) and several global partner meetings throughout India and South America, including the 5th Annual Conference of the Neurocritical Care Society of India (August 30-September 1).
A Focus on Advocacy: Inclusion in Neurocritical Care (INCC)
April is National Minority Health Month. This reminds us of the importance of our INCC committee and the sustained efforts to advance diversity in neurocritical care. Our INCC committee is planning new outreach efforts to enhance patient care and outcomes in underserved rural areas, focusing on education to care givers in these regions. NCS will feature a special plenary speaker, Mr. John Moon, at the NCS 22nd Annual Meeting in San Diego in October 2024. Mr. Moon who will highlight the history of the Freedom House Ambulance service and the importance of providing emergency services to underserved regions. And speaking of the NCS 22nd Annual Meeting in San Diego, the call for research abstracts opens today, and registration for the Annual Meeting will open later this month.
A Focus on Advocacy: Research Collaborations in Coma
My final example of Advocacy is a call for participation by all NCS members. Dr. Joe Giacino, an international authority in coma and disorders of consciousness (DOC) and a member of the Curing Coma Scientific Advisory Council is seeking your participation in a special survey on DOC. Dr. Giacino has received grant funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) for a research project designed to determine clinician awareness, perceptions and practices related to the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), and NIDILRR updated practice guidelines for clinical management of patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). I am asking you to strongly consider completing an approximately 20-minute online survey designed to acquire information about clinician knowledge, beliefs and practices concerning the DOC practice guidelines. The survey results will inform the development of guideline knowledge translation strategies and tools that will subsequently be pilot tested for feasibility and effectiveness in real-world clinical settings. The survey link is: