Maged A. Tanios, MD, discusses his article, "A randomized, controlled trial of the role of weaning: Predictors in clinical decision making," from the October issue of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Tanios is the director of the ICU at St. Mary Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. (Crit. Care Med. 34(10):2530-2535, October 2006)
The Society of Critical Care Medicine's eNewsletter provides members of the critical care community with vital news relevant to their practice as well as updates on Society activities and programs.
Charles Durbin Jr., MD, FCCM, president of SCCM, shares his insights on some of the highlights from the past year and discusses the future of SCCM with the membership. Dr. Durbin is more than halfway Thuough his SCCM presidency in a year that has been marked by many accomplishments in the critical care community. In addition to his seat at the helm of Society, Dr. Durbin is professor of anesthesiology and surgery and medical director of respiratory care at the University of Virginia, Charlottesv...
Douglas White, MD, discusses his article in the Aug issue of Critical Care Medicine, "Decisions to Limit Life-Sustaining Treatment for Critically Ill Patients Who Lack Both Decision-Making Capacity and Surrogate Decision Makers." Dr. White is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.(Crit Care Med; 2006, 34(8):2053-2059)
Marin Kollef, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the department of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine and director of medical critical care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, discusses his article in the Aug issue of Critical Care Medicine, "Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Sterile-Site Infection: The Importance of Appropriate Initial Antimicrobial Treatment." (Crit Care Med; 2006, 34(8):2069-2074)
Phillip Dellinger, MD, FCCM, professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the critical care section at Cooper University Hospital, and Roman Jaeschke, MD, a clinical professor at McMaster University discuss an article published in the Aug issue of Critical Connections. The article, "Revising the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines: A Closer Look," details the guideline revision process. (Crit Conn 2006 Vol.5 No. 4)
Terry Clemmer, MD, FCCM, discusses computerized physician order entry and error detection in the intensive care unit. This podcast was recorded during the Society's 35th Critical Care Congress and released to complement the Excellence in Quality and Safety in Critical Care conference to be held September 21 to 23, 2006. Dr. Clemmer is the director of critical care at LDS Hospital in Utah and professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
Gordon Bernard, MD, shares his thoughts on the recently released Fluid And Catheter Treatment Trial or FACTT trial published in the May issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The Society of Critical Care Medicine conducted this interview as part of its commitment to translating research to the bedside. Dr. Bernard serves as the steering committee chairman for ARDSNet, the group that published this study, and he shares his insight on its importance and future impact on critical care. Dr. B...
Marie R. Baldisseri, MD, an intensivist from the University of Pittsburgh, discusses her article from the June issue of Critical Connections, titled "Rapid Response Systems: Have They Made a Difference?" Dr. Baldisseri is an associate professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Raina M. Merchant, MD, a resident in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago, and Benjamin S. Abella, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the section of emergency medicine at the University of Chicago, discuss their article published in the July issue of Critical Care Medicine. The article, "Therapeutic Hypothermia Utilization Among Physicians After Resuscitation From Cardiac Arrest," addresses whether physicians are cooling patients after cardiac arrest (Crit Care Med Volume 34, N...
Shannon S. Carson, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and associate medical director of the medical and respiratory ICUs at the UNC Medical Center, as well as John P. Kress, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, discuss their article from the May 2006 Critical Care Medicine, "A Randomized Trial of Intermittent Lorazepam vs. Propofol With Daily Interruption in Mechanically Ventilated Patients." (Crit Care Med Volume 3...
Brian Jacobs, MD, project director of Integrating Clinical Information Systems, or ICIS, at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, discusses how efforts in computerized physician order entry relate to patient safety. The ICIS system is a computer-based system implemented Thuoughout the hospital Thuough which all medical orders are entered and documented electronically. The system, believed to be the most comprehensive in any pediatric hospital in the United States, is expected to reduce ...
Vera De Palo, MD, outlines several common questions healthcare professionals should consider to help prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU. Her article "Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections: Can We Make it Safer For Our Patients?" appears in the April issue of Critical Connections. Dr. DePalo is associate chief of medicine and director of critical care at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. She also is an associate professor of medicine at Brown Medical School.(Crit Conn 2...
Phil Barie, MD, MBA, FCCM, discusses his article from the April edition of Critical Connections on antibiotic prophylaxis. He addresses when this therapy is most useful as well as the consequences of overuse. Dr. Barie is professor of surgery and public health at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, and he sits on the executive committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. (Crit Conn 2006 Vol.5 No.2)
Jack Zimmerman, MD, FCCM, discusses his article in the May 2006 edition of Critical Care Medicine, "Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (or APACHE IV): Hospital Mortality Assessment for Today's Critically Ill Patients." Dr. Zimmerman is professor emeritus of anesthesia and critical care medicine at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. (Critical Care Medicine Volume 34, Number 5, May 2006 pp 1297-1310)
Robert Truog, MD, discusses his article in the April issue of Critical Care Medicine, "Rationing in the Intensive Care Unit." Dr. Truog is professor of medical ethics and anesthesia, pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Childrens Hospital Boston. The article focuses on how ICU caregivers distribute resources in the ICU.
Stanley Nasraway, MD, FCCM, discusses his article published in the April issue of Critical Care Medicine, titled "Morbid Obesity Is an Independent Determinant of Death Among Surgical Critically Ill Patients." Dr. Nasraway is associate professor of surgery, medicine and anesthesia at Tufts University and chief of the surgical intensive care units at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. His article addresses the growing number of morbidly obese patients entering the intensive...
Jean-Louis Vincent, MD, PhD, FCCM, discusses an article from the March issue of Critical Care Medicine, "Does dopamine administration in shock influence outcome? Results of the Sepsis Occurrence in Acutely Ill Patients (SOAP) Study." (Critical Care Medicine, Volume 34, Number 3, Mar 2006, pp 589-597.)
Martha Curley, RN, PhD, discusses her article in the Mar 2006 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, titled "State Behavioral Scale: A Sedation Assessment Instrument for Infants and Young Children Supported on Mechanical Ventilation." Dr. Curley, director of nursing research in critical care and cardiovascular nursing research at The Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, is a recognized expert in pediatric critical care nursing. She discusses the development and validation of the Sta...
Michael Cheatham, MD, FCCM, is director of the surgical trauma intensive care unit at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida. He discusses his article published in the February issue of Critical Connections titled, "Consensus Definitions for Intra-Abdominal Hypertension and Abdominal Compartment Syndrome." Dr. Cheatham is vice president of the World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome and has studied the impact of elevated intra-abdominal pressures for more than a decade.
Michael Gropper, MD, PhD, is director of critical care medicine for the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and professor of medicine and anesthesiology at the medical school. He is one of the many healthcare professionals who have found success in implementing the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines and discusses the strategies for implementation as well as the challenges his institution faced.
Anthony Slonim, MD, DrPH, FCCM, and Angela Hsu, MD, both from the Children's National Medical Center at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., discuss their article in the February issue of Critical Connections, titled "Preventing Pediatric Trauma: The Role of the Critical Care Professional." They focus on the different levels of prevention in this patient population and how critical care professionals can play a more active role in making sure fewer young patie...
Mitchell Levy, MD, FCCM, and Jean-Louis Vincent, MD, PhD, FCCM, discuss their article in the October issue of Critical Care Medicine. The article, "Early Changes in Organ Function Predict Eventual Survival in Severe Sepsis," can help clinicians identify variables associated with good outcomes in sepsis. The authors explain that if patients with sepsis are not getting better at the end of 24 hours, they may be getting worse. (Critical Care Medicine, Volume 33(issue 10) October 2005 pp 2194-2201).
Gordon Bernard, MD, serves as the ARDSNet Steering Committee Chairman and shared his knowledge of the ARDSNet project with attendees of the 35th Critical Care Congress during his keynote presentation,"ARDSNet: Success and Challenges of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's First Critical Care Research Network." Dr. Bernard is the Melinda Owen Bass professor of pulmonary medicine, assistant vice-chancellor for research and director of the division of allergy, pulmonary, and critical car...
Lt. Col. Chet Morrison, MD, director of surgical critical care at Michigan State University, shares his experiences serving as a military surgeon in Iraq and gives insight to critical care in combat settings.
Timothy Quill, MD, one of seven prominent critical care leaders presenting during the plenary sessions at the 35th Critical Care Congress, discusses the Terry Schiavo case and how courts have played a role in end-of-life decision making. Dr. Quill is a professor of medicine, psychiatry and medical humanities, as well as the director of the Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.
The Society's of Critical Care Medicine's incoming president, Charles Durbin Jr., MD, FCCM, discusses the goals he would like to help the Society achieve as well as current topics in the profession, including implementing guidelines in critical care and utilizing the multiprofessional team.
J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH, discusses his article in the December 2005 issue of Critical Connections, "Improving Family Conferences About End of Life Care in the ICU." Dr. Curtis is the director of the end-of-life research program at the University of Washington in Seattle. He shares advice on how healthcare professionals can build trust with families with open and honest conversations about patient care and offers techniques and procedures associated with "successful" family conferences. (Crit ...
Karin Kirchhoff, MSN, PhD, discusses her article published in the December 2005 issue of Critical Connections, "Getting Our ICU Language Straight." Dr. Kirchhoff is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing. She discusses how every member of the multiprofessional team can improve families experiences at the end of life by being sensitive to the language they use and involving the family at every stage of care. (Crit Conn 2005 Vol.4 No.6)
Robert Truog, MD, FCCM, discusses his article published in the December 2005 issue of Critical Connections, "Pediatric End of Life: Special Needs for Special Children." Dr. Truog is professor of medical ethics and anesthesia, pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston. He discusses the unique challenges faced in the pediatric intensive care unit by physicians and family members. (Crit Conn 2005 Vol.4 No.6)
