June 2024 President's Update
Published on: June 07, 2024
Welcome to June and the halfway point of 2024. This year has marked a period of intentional change for the NCS, driven by strategic planning and self-reflection as the society enters its third decade. These changes have impacted our committees, sections and the Board of Directors (the Board).
The Board has approved a comprehensive update to our governance structure, aimed at enhancing participation in the society and providing important longitudinal insights to our vision. Key highlights of the governance changes include:
- Reducing the Board term duration from four years to three years.
- Progressive change in the total number of seats on the Board to a more effective, decision-making model.
- Moving the past presidents from the Board to a newly formed Past Presidents’ Council.
- Enhancing the role of international leaders through the creation of an International Council.
- Creation of a one-year trainee seat on the Board.
- Increasing the frequency of Board meetings to six meetings per year (i.e., four virtual meetings and two in-person meetings).
- Revising the duties of the Executive Committee to serve in roles previously performed by the Finance Committee.
- Creating a Fundraising Task Force from the Board.
Additionally, we have implemented several cost-reduction measures through the Financial Task Force, aimed at increasing value for members while reducing costs.
This internal reorganization is part of a progressive process to adapt the NCS to meet the evolving needs of our maturing organization.
Our committees and sections continue to actively advance the mission of the society in 2024. I would like to highlight just some of the recent work being done by a few of our committees.
Advancements in Education
Our strategic plan aims for the NCS to ‘Become the Educator of Choice’ in neurocritical care. To achieve this, we will soon launch a needs assessment survey, developed collaboratively by the Educational Products Committee, Nursing Section and APP Section. We anticipate launching the education needs survey soon and plan to disseminate it broadly to ICU team members.
The ENLS committee is actively working on finalizing ENLS 6.0, which is anticipated to be released by the end of 2024.
The NCS is also enhancing its educational mission through a comprehensive review of educational objectives under the guidance of our new educational director, Michelle Taylor. Michelle brings extensive experience in education from her work with leading medical educational groups such as the American Academy of Neurology.
Advancements in Global Reach of Education
The NCS continues to lead international education through its ENLS training seminars held in various regions of the world, including Nigeria, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ENLS is being tailored to accommodate regions with limited resources those with different pharmaceutical and therapeutics practices compared to North America. The NCS is enthusiastic about forging international collaborations to bring ENLS and other educational materials to those in need.
Workshop training in the Brain Death Determination continue to grow internationally, with recent live courses conducted in the UAE.
Advancements in Curing Coma® and Research
So far this year, the Curing Coma Campaign has made significant strides with the success of World Coma Day and the launch of the COMPOSE study. World Coma Day 2024 attracted 658 registrants from 70 countries and featured 170 live discussions. This event raised over $37,000 for research, demonstrating global support and engagement.
The COMPOSE study, led by Dr. Chethan Rao, is an international research initiative examining the incidence of coma across a diverse range of healthcare centers. In its first six months, the COMPOSE study has already enrolled 100 subjects, marking a strong start to this important investigation.
Last, the NCS remains a strong advocate for the Neurocritical Care Foundation (NCCF), our philanthropic arm. The NCCF is focused on developing outreach to philanthropists, foundations and industry funders to secure unrestricted grants for research. The NCS has a focused prospectus of research initiatives aimed at advancing the field of neurocritical care.
These are just some of the advancements made to support your member experience and position the NCS for continued growth.