Volume 32 | Issue 3

Welcome to the Fall edition of Interchange! First and foremost, on behalf of the Society, I would like to congratulate all those young colleagues that have selected Anesthesia/Critical Care as their subspecialty. This issue is dedicated to you, our newest members.

I would like to start by saying it is an honor to take over the Communications Committee at SOCCA and subsequently as editor of Interchange. I have to give immense credit to my immediate predecessor Craig Jabaley for continuing to maintain—and even expand—the committee’s roles throughout the initial waves of the COVID pandemic. I hope to continue that process and build upon the foundations provided to better serve our organization. To that end we have created two subcommittees to better focus on the varying roles of the Communications Committee. These two subcommittees will focus on Twitter and SOCCA Interchange / Drip respectively. I would encourage any of our members who don’t yet follow us on Twitter (@SOCCA_CritCare) to do so as well as frequent our blog (SOCCA Drip) to stay up to date on all things SOCCA including webinars, meetings, and organizational opportunities.

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Job Board

Volume 32 | Issue 3 Newsletter
Read members-only job posts—including roles with University of Washington, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Albany Medical Center—at SOCCA’s Job Board.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on critical care education and fellowship recruitment. Adherence to the social distancing guidelines required the Critical Care Fellowship applicants and the fellowship programs to adapt to the world of virtual interviewing for the 2020-2021 recruitment season. Initially, virtual interviewing was envisioned as a temporary solution to the ongoing pandemic with the hope of returning to in-person interviews for the next recruitment season. Unfortunately, virtual interviewing is likely the new norm for critical care fellowship interviewing, given the unrelenting pandemic. Given this new reality, fellowship programs must understand the advantages and disadvantages from an applicant’s perspective for this new era in the fellowship recruiting process.  

The COVID-19 social distancing guidelines have required the fellowship programs and the applicants to adapt to the world of virtual interviewing. The virtual interviewing process has undoubtedly been an uncharted path for the vast majority of applicants and the fellowship programs. Here, I provide advice to prospective interviewees and fellowship programs on navigating the world of virtual interviewing as the virtual interviewing format is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

On behalf of the SOCCA Education Committee, we would like to extend our thanks to our new members. It is heartwarming to see such an overwhelming enthusiasm to advance the educational mission of SOCCA. As SOCCA membership grows, the Education Committee has realigned its structure to create working groups, dedicated to meeting the education needs of our SOCCA members and the anesthesiology critical care community at large. The last few months have been a testing time for any practicing intensivist in the United States. We have been working overtime fighting the delta COVID sweeping through the country. Despite this, the SOCCA Education Committee aptly supported by the rest of the SOCCA membership has continued to produce remarkable new critical care education content. We are deeply appreciative and truly admire each of you as you deal with this once in a lifetime ‘ICU pandemic.’ Our update highlights our working groups that have been extremely busy in developing diverse educational content and adapting to the ever-changing landscape imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Early Career Working Group has been working hard to put together some exciting content for this fall. First off will be our Job Seminar for Fellows on October 21 at 6pm EST. This webinar has been specially arranged for our members who have just started their fellowships and are starting to look for jobs and plan their careers. Please join us for what promises to be a lively discussion with your co-fellows from around the country. Our panelists will include department chairs, program directors, members in private practice, and recent fellowship graduates.

The strength of SOCCA is the wealth of talent and energy of its members. One of the ways to serve the Society is through volunteer activities. The SOCCA Nominations Committee annually evaluates nominees and develops an election ballot for available Officer and Director positions. This election cycle we will be electing a Secretary (2-year term) and 3 Board of Directors (3-year term). The Secretary position serves as the entry position for eventual advancement to Society President. Further details about the governance structure of SOCCA are described in our Society Bylaws.

Searching for Next Generation Leaders

Searches are often conducted within academic departments to find suitable candidates for leadership succession.  This is usually done either when a vacancy emerges, following a retirement or when a new role is created. Internal searches are carried out to offer inclusion to emerging talent and add diversity to the pool of academics already holding administrative roles. Finding a good fit for a leadership role is an inexact science.

Undertaking robust research may offer professional gratification and a betterment of our specialty that cannot be gleaned from clinical excellence alone. It has to be said my journey through research has been an evolved one, catalyzed by clinical questions, collaborations, mentorship and a pursuit of an ever-sharpening question around the role of oxygen and other gasotransmitters in perioperative inflammation and critical illness. To my mind, I have been very fortunate to be in an environment at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center which affords academic time, mentorship and understands the committed investment it takes to develop a home-grown clinically active researcher.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest is a highly morbid and clinically challenging public health issue.

Imposter syndrome is the internal struggle to trust our knowledge and capability, and it follows many of us through each facet of training and career. I first experienced it in medical school. Time and experience is a good antidote, but the real remedy is mimicry; “fake it until you make it.”