Sixty-four students, faculty, residents, and fellows had the opportunity to attend a first of its kind daylong symposium on time-controlled adaptive ventilation (TCAV) on Thursday, Sept. 26.
The symposium, spearheaded by Peggy White, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, featured talks by four renowned experts as well as a Q&A session and provided an opportunity to earn Continuing Medical Education credits. The event, which was also livestreamed and video-recorded, drew attendees from the departments of Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Neurology, and Surgery, as well as several Respiratory Therapy students from Santa Fe College.
The workshop was created to help with education and faculty development as well as patient management for severe refractory hypoxemia, Dr. White said. It took nearly two years to arrange for the speakers to attend and organize the event.
The educational objectives were to understand ventilator strategies used to optimize gas exchange in acute respiratory distress syndrome, gain knowledge in ventilator settings used for time cycled adaptive ventilation settings, and describe the hemodynamic effects of time cycled adaptive ventilation.
The symposium was well received, Dr. White said, and facilitated stimulating discussion with John Downs, MD, Emeritus Professor of Anesthesiology, who invented the airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) technique. Time-controlled adaptive ventilation is the modern interpretation of APRV.
“It’s very exciting that Dr. Downs invented this here back in 1987 and we’re still utilizing it and managing our really sick patients with this mode of ventilation,” Dr. White said, adding that she hopes the event can be held in future years and expanded to include pulmonary physiology and ventilator management education.
The speakers were:
- Nader Habashi, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland; Medical Director, Multi-trauma Critical Care Unit; and Clinical Medical Director, Respiratory Therapy Department, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
- Gary Nieman, BS, Professor and Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Surgery; Director, Critical Care Laboratory, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York
- Penny Andrews, RN, Critical Care Nurse, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, SUNY Upstate Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Laboratory
- Maria Madden, RT, Respiratory Therapist, University of Maryland Medical Center