Committee Updates
Trainee Special Interest Group Updates
By Rica Buchanan, MD, MPH
Boston Children’s Hospital
Asif Padiyath, MD
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Co-Chairs of the Trainee Special Interest Group
The first year of the Trainee Special Interest Group (SIG) was an exciting year filled with new initiatives.
One of our first endeavors was to participate in the redesign of the website of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society (CCAS) focusing on the information found in the Trainee tabs. If you have any suggestions for the Trainees’ section of the website, please contact us at rica.buchanan@childrens.harvard.edu and padiyatha@email.chop.edu.
The Cardiac Mentoring Initiative (CMI) by Drs. Laura Diaz-Berenstain, Nina Deutsch, Nina Guzzetta and Viviane Nasr was a success. The purpose of the CMI is to offer coaching/mentoring to assist advanced pediatric cardiac anesthesia fellows in gaining the skills, knowledge, and confidence to successfully navigate fellowship and ease their transition from the role of fellow to attending cardiac anesthesiologist.
The Trainee SIG would like to thank the Trainee Lecture Series group led by Drs. Latham, Albertz, and Houska. The Lecture Series group has coordinated an engaging monthly lecture series for fellows. They have done so while working with the Trainee SIG to meet the educational needs of the fellow classes and for that we are grateful.
The Trainee SIG is not only about education and mentoring, it is also about networking with friends and colleagues. In the early Fall and again in the Spring, we held trainee happy hours to discuss recruitment efforts, mentor/mentee pairs, engagement amongst members, and potential learning opportunities. We aim to hold another happy hour sometime in the summer to connect with incoming pediatric cardiac anesthesia fellows.
What is next?
Coming this year is a lecture series specifically driven by advanced fellows with the audience being trainees at all levels including fellows, residents, and medical students.
We additionally would like to ensure fellow representation and engagement in the different CCAS committees in order to foster future leaders in cardiac anesthesia. If you are interested in participating in a CCAS committee (Quality and Safety, Research, Education, Communication, Database) or interest group (Hemostasis Interest Group, Trainee Interest Group), please let us know by July 1.
Finally, one of our major goals is to continue expanding our profile as a group. The current SIG members will continue the efforts to identify and recruit more members who are interested in pursuing a career in Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology. We are currently working with Dr. Viviane Nasr on an end of the year red cap survey for advanced pediatric cardiac fellows to elicit feedback on the current initiatives, membership needs and future avenues for engagement.
Please contact us with any suggestions or questions at: rica.buchanan@childrens.harvard.edu and padiyatha@email.chop.edu.
