In this, my first President’s Corner article, I would like to try and answer the question that Past President Steve Kimatian posed in the September issue of the Newsletter. He asked, “Where to from here?”, and he outlined the progress that the society has made over the past year. This included the landmark achievements of our endowed Starter Grant in Education (The SEAd Grant) and the inclusion of our Journal of Education in Perioperative Medicine (JEPM) in the PubMed Central database.

I am also very pleased to report the establishment of the Philip Liu Awards for Innovations in Anesthesia Education, graciously endowed by the Liu family, which was represented at our Fall Meeting by his widow, Dr. Letty Liu. Dr. Philip L. Liu was the founding president of the SEA, and he was dedicated to the society becoming a force for innovation in anesthesiology education. Dr. Liu spent most of his academic career in the Harvard system at the Massachusetts General and Peter Brigham Hospitals. He later served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He was the first recipient of the SEA / Duke Award for Excellence and Innovation in Anesthesia Education (1997). Fittingly, the Liu family has established two annual Innovation in Education awards as a tribute to his life and contribution to our Society: One is for Innovation in Curriculum, and the other is for Innovation in Education Research. The inaugural awards will be awarded at the 2017 SEA Spring Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. Each $1000 award recipient will be selected from the abstracts submitted to the Research committee and presented at the Spring meeting.

Swapna Chaudhuri, MD, PhD	John Lawrence, MD, MEd

One of the important objectives of our committee is to introduce our membership to various technological tools that can assist anesthesiology educators and learners in enhancing medical education. To that end, we were privileged to conduct highly informative workshops during the spring and fall meetings in 2016, ranging from “Zoom” and “Hangouts” web conferencing apps to Gamify-ing clinical & classroom-based learning and ways to enhance our personal & professional “Cyber Security”. We intend to continue this important endeavor this year, and look forward to strong participation at our workshops again this year!

We are also thrilled to inform you that SEA-Q (Question of the Month) is going strong, thanks to excellent question submissions from members of our various committees. This online interactive educational activity, hosted on the home page of our SEA website, has been receiving increasing participation – even up to 150 respondents per question! We are extremely pleased to inform that thanks to this communal effort, we are now in the 22nd straight month of SEA-Q posting, which has produced a decent array of questions in the field of medical education. Please feel free to check them out regularly and frequently; we hope to continue increasing our valuable bank in the coming months.

SEA is pleased to announce a new award for members. Starting in 2017, two awards for research will be presented in honor of Dr. Philip Liu, a founding member of SEA. This award was established by the gracious benevolence of the Liu family, and we were pleased to have Dr. Letty Liu and Dr. Leila Mei Pang with us for the announcement at the 2016 Fall meeting.

Dr. Phil Liu was a founding member of SEA in 1984. He was active in education throughout his career. He was part of the Interhospital Study Group that initiated the Anesthesia Knowledge Test (AKT), which is still in use today. Through his support at the ASA, PBLDs were included at every annual meeting. Many SEA members participate in this highly educational activity. Dr. Liu was not only a founding member of SEA but also remained active even after his retirement. SEA members will remember his lively involvement in discussions and his wonderful sense of humor.

Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) is pleased to announce Jo Davies, MBBS, FRCA is a recipient of the eleventh annual HVO Golden Apple Award. As part of its World Health Day observances and in celebration of World Health Worker Week, HVO recognizes the extraordinary contributions of HVO members, volunteers and supporters to HVO’s mission, organization and/or project sites. Each individual honored with this award has demonstrated an impressive commitment to HVO’s mission to improve global health through the education, training, and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries.

As project director for HVO’s anesthesia training project in Malawi, Dr. Davies has put her heart and soul into ensuring the success of the program—even traveling to the site every 18 months to run the final exams for anesthesia students. Her devotion to the HVO mission has helped foster a strong, sustainable training program in Malawi. In addition to her volunteer assignments, she is currently serving a three-year rotation on HVO’s Anesthesia Steering Committee. In total, she has contributed more than 110 volunteer service days.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Book author: Rebecca Skloot

This was a book that a good friend gave me just before the trip to the ASA last year. I needed something to read during the long flight to the west coast and this seemed to fit the bill. The book was riveting and managed to keep me engaged, not just on the flight to the ASA, but also on my way back.

William Alarcon, MD	Cindy Ku, MD

FAER scholars later attended a workshop aimed at identifying core values and academic career paths, as well as seeking and identifying mentorship at various stages. This workshop was hosted by our committee leadership, Dr. Ku and Dr. Alarcon.

We are partnering with the Simulation committee to design a workshop for the Spring Meeting on training faculty to help prepare residents for the upcoming OSCE component of the new applied exam of the ABA. Our Committee also submitted some of the featured monthly SEA Question of the Month (SEA-Q).

Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari

Review by Viji Kurup, MD

Books are like old friends. Sometimes you remember exactly when you first met them… Sapiens is one such book. I was driving home from work and listening to a fascinating NPR interview with author Yuval Noah Harari. The discussion was about how human beings evolved to the present-day form, and they went on to discuss the scenarios of possible ‘future worlds’. The author’s arguments were compelling and stimulating! I made a mental note to look up the book, and when I did, I couldn’t put the book down until I’d finished reading it.

We are excited to present a new section for our newsletter. Grand cru is French for “superior grade wine”. Accordingly, this new feature highlights some of the best articles from recent medical education literature.

For our first offering, we have chosen to focus on the concept of Reflective Practice in Medical Education, considered an essential element of teaching and learning in medicine. Reflective practice is believed to facilitate development of critical thinking abilities, enhance professional growth, and promote life-long learning.

GOOD BEDTIME READS BOOK REVIEW
Quiet by Susan Cain
Published by Random House

We had a very good applicant season for the 2018/19 SEA-HVO Traveling Fellowships and received 34 applications for the general pool and 4 applications for the new Henry Ford scholarship. The Chair of Henry Ford Hospital has announced a fully funded Fellowship that will fund one resident from their program every year to receive a SEA-HVO fellowship. Due to the kindness of our donors, we were able to award nine other SEA/HVO Fellowships this year. The successful residents are as follows:

• Samuel Percy,  MD – University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle WA
  • Harry M Zutz Memorial Fellowship
• Praba Boominathan, MD – Yale University, New Haven, CT
  • Ronald L. Katz Memorial Fellowship
• Cara Ann Iorianni, MD – Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta GA
  • Gary Loyd Fellowship
• Onyechi Megafu, MBBS – Drexel University College of Medicine, PA
  • Christopher & Rebecca Dobson Fellowship
• Michael Do, MD, MBA – University of California, San Francisco, CA
  • Lisa Feintech Fellowship
• Brenton Alexander, MD – University of California, San Diego
  • SEA Fellowship
• Hassan Aboumerhi, MD – University of Chicago
  • Christopher & Rebecca Dobson Fellowship
• David Rudnick, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA
  • Jo Davies & Lena Dohlman Fellowship
• Andrew Rivera-Hober, MD – New York Presbyterian Hospital, NY
  • SEA Fellowship
• Jose Navas-Blanco, MD – Henry Ford, Detroit
  • Gaylord Alexander International Relief Fellowship

With incredible generosity, Dr. Lena Dohlman has announced a 2 for 1 matching donation up to a maximum of $50,000 for donations to the SEA-HVO traveling fellowship fund from SEA members. This will enable us to potentially fund an additional Fellowship each year for many years to come. A special “thank you” to Lena.

The SEA Spring meeting in Louisville, Kentucky was memorable, not only for the fantastic view of the annual “Thunder Over Louisville” airshow and fireworks from the top of the hotel, but also for the keynote address given by Dr. Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, Chief Executive Officer, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). I must confess to being a little wary going into the presentation, as I wondered what new checkboxes he would have in store for us. I could not have been more wrong.

Dr. Nasca gave an engaging and scholarly account of the philosophical traditions underpinning the American conceptualization of both Medicine as a Profession, and Professionalism within the practice of medicine. At its heart, this involves a commitment to scientific and clinical competence and altruism. Dr. Nasca focused on Professional Identity Formation and the challenge of inculcating not only professional behavior, but internalizing a set of professional values in our trainees. This socialization into the profession is described in detail by Cruess and Cruess (Acad. Med. 2014), and results in the individual “thinking, acting, and feeling like a physician.”  He emphasized that this transformation can take place only in a healthy educational environment, and ended in a rousing call to arms:

Name:

Bryan Mahoney, MD, FASA

Title and Faculty Appointment:

Assistant Professor, Residency Program Director
Vice Chair of Education
Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and West Hospitals
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A Career Opportunity for Anesthesia Educators

When we consider during our careers whether or not to pursue additional training, we may weigh benefits such as career advancement and professional gratification against the investment of time and money. I recently earned the Certificate for Professionals in Patient Safety (CPPS), offered by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). In my estimation, the CPPS is a good investment, and I would like to share how it may help advance your professional goals.

The CPPS was created to help health care professionals achieve proficiency in patient safety through a common language and skills development. It is targeted not just to physicians of all specialties, but also to nurses, pharmacists, and healthcare executives. Since its creation, more than 2,000 healthcare professionals have obtained CPPS certification. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has recently endorsed the effort by partnering with the IHI/NPSF to offer ASA members a 10% discount on coursework and examination fees.

Name:

Jonathan Hastie, MD

Title and Faculty Appointment:

Assistant Professor
Former Associate Residency Program Director
Department of Anesthesiology
Columbia University Medical Center

The SEA Bylaws Committee, led by Dr. Michael Sandison, SEA Immediate Past-President and Chairperson of the Bylaws Committee has developed suggested amendments to the SEA Bylaws.

Please click the link below to download a draft of the proposed Bylaws amendments.