The 20th Neurocritical Care Society Annual Meeting online and in San Antonio, Texas, brought together an impressive gathering of more than 1,300 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, residents and trainees from across the globe. The meeting provided an opportunity for our community to gather together and share the latest research, guidelines and updates in the field of neurocritical care.
I would like to share my appreciation to the Annual Meeting Committee for organizing such a spectacular meeting for all attendees. A special thank you to my co-chairs Drs. Neha Dangayach and Eljim Tesoro for their dedication and passion.
During the Annual Business Meeting, Dr. Panos Varelas passed the role of NCS President to me. I am honored to serve as your NCS President. In my address, I emphasized how important connecting to meaningful work within NCS was to me personally and professionally. I also promised to share additional opportunities with you to get involved with NCS. I will list several opportunities here and throughout the year as we continue our important work.
NCS Sections are a great place for our members with similar interests to connect to share ideas and work on projects together. High-functioning sections have multiple work groups to connect with work on projects, problem-solve, and provide education for others in the group. I encourage you to log into the NCS website and browse available sections. To join, select the “Join” button and enter your email address. You can set your email preferences to be notified of conversations involving the section. If you’d like to become more active within a section, contact that section’s leadership to express your interest in becoming further involved in projects.
Speaking of sections, I am happy to announce the formation of the Quality Improvement Section. The Quality Committee recently transitioned to section status in order to facilitate their work. Specific projects currently underway include but are not limited to: quality metrics for the Curing Coma® Campaign, contributing to quality and safety articles to Currents, beta-testing performance measures, and more. The Quality Improvement Section provides opportunities for leadership and mentorship to neurocritical care clinicians. If you are interested in joining this section, please email Dr. Abhijit V. Lele and Dr. Casey Olm-Shipman.
As many of you know, NCS is a proud supporter of the Neurocritical Care Foundation. The goal of the Foundation is to foster collaboration between individuals and organizations who support and perform neurocritical care research, with an emphasis on treatments and cures for life-threatening neurological disorders. Thank you to those of you who donated to the Foundation at the 20th Annual Meeting. I would like to congratulate the winners of the donation raffle, Ebonye Green and Elissa Fory. Thank you for your contribution to the philanthropic goals of the Foundation. If you are interested in learning more about the Foundation and ways you can support research and educational initiatives, please visit the Neurocritical Care Foundation website.
As an NCS member, your insight is incredibly valuable to our Society. If you have a moment, we would be grateful for your feedback on the recently released Common Data Elements (CDEs) for research studies of patients with disorders of consciousness. All suggestions are welcome, including adding/removing CDEs, reclassifying CDEs, and revising the CDE classification system. Please send your comments to cde.curingcoma@gmail.com by Wednesday, November 30.
You can also contribute to the Curing Coma® Campaign by recording a story of hope. If you have a story you would like to share, and you would rather write a Currents article, please contact Editor-in-Chief Dr. Michael Reznik. And if you need a little inspiration, please view the stories of hope playlist collected during World Coma Day 2022 highlighting patients who’ve recovered from Coma.
The future of NCS is bright thanks to the collective talents and energy of our membership. I am incredibly honored to be leading our organization for the next year.
Best,
Sarah L. Livesay, DNP, APRN, FNCS, FAAN
Associate Dean, Professor
Rush University College of Nursing
Neurocritical Care APP, University of Washington
President, Neurocritical Care Society
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