president's message
10 years (young) and going strong!
By Emad B. Mossad, MD
Texas Children’s Hospital
I am honored and excited to serve you as president of our Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society. This winter will mark 10 years in the history of our society. In fact, on October 19th, 2005 the SPA Board of Directors voted to approve SPA Bylaws changes that formally incorporated CCAS as a new Society organized within the SPA.
We have come a long way in those 10 years. Our mission remains the same and our focus unchanged, to advance the perioperative care of children and adults with congenital heart disease, and represent and support those who provide that care. The society is all EARS: we aim to be a resource to educate those who provide the care, advocate for our patients and our members and support research endeavors.
Over the years, our membership has grown from less than 200 at our inception in 2005 to over 1,000 members in 2014 with 38 institutional charter members. We continue to seek membership and participation of all individuals whose practice involves care for patients with congenital heart disease. We also want to expand our membership to an international platform, to collaborate and exchange knowledge and experiences from around the globe.
Our Education Committee continues to strive to provide educational value for our membership. Lead by Dr. Nina Guzzetta, we have a great upcoming annual one-day program on March 12, 2015, in conjunction with the SPA-AAP Pediatric Anesthesiology 2015 meeting, in Phoenix, Arizona. I encourage you to register early, book your hotel and plan to attend (www.ccasociety.org).
The CCAS newsletter and website are our venues to provide updates and new knowledge, and we are delighted to change the format and content to serve your needs. Drs. Mark Twite and Luis Zabala continue to seek suggestions and input.
I want to welcome two new Board members, Dr. Jeremy Geiduschek (Seattle Children’s Hospital) and Dr. Luis Zabala (Children's Medical Center Dallas), who joined our Board in October 2014 and together with the rest of the leadership, are here to serve you.
The CCAS has been an advocate for our specialty since its start. As a Society, and through the work of various taskforces, we have provided strong and clear guidelines for training in the specialty (J DiNardo et al Anesthesia Analgesia 2010;110:1121-5), and the use of rFVIIa (NA Guzzetta et al Anesthesia Analgesia 2012;115:364-78). We are embarking on several other collaborative taskforces to establish guidelines for our specialty.
The CCAS database is going strong. Thanks to the tireless work of Dr. David Vener who has lead this effort and built bridges with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, we now have over 45 participating institutions providing anesthetic data, and by the fall of 2014, over 41,000 anesthesia related entries. This is a platform that is available for many quality improvement, outcomes and future research endeavors and I encourage you to, first participate in the database if your institution is not yet, and to seek this resource for education, quality improvement and research.
Ten years is very young in the life of any discipline or professional organization. It is a great time to celebrate our recognition, identity and our plans and hopes for a bright future. I invite you to celebrate this milestone with us in Phoenix and to help us shape the CCAS to be the Society that represents, advocates and advances our specialty.
Warmest greetings from myself and our board of directors.
