An abstract submitted to the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) by three of our department's faculty researchers has been chosen for presentation in the 2013 ASA Best Abstracts session. Emine Bayman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Michael Todd, M.D., Professor, and Franklin Dexter, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, are co-authors of the abstract entitled, "An Improved Statistical Method for Assessing and Comparing Anesthesiologists' Performance on Mandated Metrics."

The Anesthesiology Journal sponsors the Best Abstracts session, reviewing submitted abstracts and selecting those appropriate for this special designation. Key findings of the abstracts selected are discussed by the Editors of Anesthesiology. For 2013, twelve abstracts will be discussed under the leadership of Editors, Bruno Riou, M.D., from University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, France, and by David S. Warner, M.D., from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Warner is an alumnus of Iowa's Department of Anesthesia. 

Nicholas Mohr, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, is to be congratulated for his recent successful grant application. Dr. Mohr received funding for his project entitled, "Prehospital Prevention of Ventilator-associated Pneumonia Trial." He was awarded $25,000 from the Injury Prevention Research Center within the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa for this one-year clinical pilot study.

Sinyoung Kang, M.D., Ph.D., Associate, is to be congratulated for her recent successful grant application. Dr. Kang was awarded a Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) training grant in basic science for her grant entitled, "Afferent Mechanisms Mediating Reflex Inhibition of Phrenic Motor Output after Upper Abdominal Surgery." This is a two year award for $175,000.00.

The Department of Anesthesia has just been awarded a grant of $314,074 from Karl Storz Endoscopy America, Inc. for an investigator-initiated project entitled “Comparison of Video Laryngoscopy with the C-MAC® D Blade versus the Glidescope® in the Predicted Difficult Airway:  A Multi-centered Randomized Controlled Noninferiority Trial.”  This will be a 1,000 patient, three-center trial involving the University of Iowa, Oregon Health Sciences University, and the University of Texas in Dallas.  The coordinating center will be located at Oregon, headed by Dr. Michael Aziz, while the UI will serve as both a participating center (under the leadership of Drs. Ron Abrons and David Swanson) and as the Data Management Center (under the direction of Drs. Michael Todd and Emine Bayman).  The two centers other than Iowa will receive a combined total of $330,064 (for a grant total of $644,538).   Dr. Todd serves as the principal investigator for Iowa, Dr. Aziz at OHSU, and Dr. Davide Cattano at Texas.  

 Ron Abrons      Emine Bayman     David Swanson      Mike Todd

Anna Riessen has been selected the 2013 recipient of the Stuart Cullen Award. This honor is voted upon by the anesthesia residents and awarded to a senior medical student extern who, by scholastic achievement and clinical performance, has demonstrated outstanding capabilities in the field of anesthesiology during the senior clerkship in the department. A monetary gift accompanies this award. Dr. Stuart C. Cullen, who attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin and completed a residency in anesthesia at Belleview Hospital in New York, was recruited to the University of Iowa in the fall of 1938 as the Chief of the Anesthesia Division. At that time, anesthesia services were a division of the Department of Surgery. Under Dr. Cullen, the program flourished by the late 1940s. While principally known as a clinician and educator, he understood the importance of research. Dr. Cullen left Iowa in 1958 to become Chair of the Department of Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco. His decision to depart was based to a great degree on his never being able to attain departmental status for anesthesia at Iowa.

Brent Hadder, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, passed his national board examinations in Hospice and Palliative Care (HPC).  He's the first individual in our department to seek out and accomplish this. The Palliative Care Program at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) was established in 1999, and prior to this most recent testing session, there were three university physicians certified in palliative medicine. Along with Dr. Hadder, two additional physicians participated in this most recent examination. All three were successful in becoming certified, thus bringing the UIHC total number of certified palliative medicine physicians to six.

Of note is that this certification testing is administered through Internal Medicine, and the American Board of Anesthesiologists recognizes the results. Per the American Board of Anesthesiologists, “Hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) is based on expanding scientific knowledge about symptom control when cure is not possible and appropriate care during the last stages of life. Research, teaching, and practice efforts in this field have led to a vast increase in knowledge in the effort to relieve suffering of seriously ill patients and their families. Physicians who acquire subspecialist-level knowledge and skills in hospice and palliative medicine largely practice in one of two distinct professional roles: 1) hospice medical director, and 2) institution-based palliative care practice.”

Dr. Hadder has been interested in this area for quite some time, devoting many hours and much work to this effort. For several years, he has devoted almost all of his nonclinical time and post-Surgical Intensive Care Unit weeks to the Palliative Care Consultation Service.  He spent literally thousands of hours - and this board certification is the final step.

Iowa’s Palliative Care team is made up of a number of disciplines, including doctors and nurses, a social worker, music therapist and chaplain. In the next issue of department’s newsletter (Spring 2013), you will be provided the opportunity to read an article wherein Dr. Hadder provides more detail about our institution’s Palliative Care Consultation Service, as well as his personal involvement.

Congratulations to Emily Petruccelli, a third-year genetics graduate student in Dr. Toshihiro Kitamoto's research laboratory. Emily was awarded first place in a poster presentation contest at the 2012 Genetics Graduate Program Retreat held on Monday, November 26, 2012. She competed among more than 20 other individuals who submitted posters. In addition, Emily has also received a 3-year NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship for her project entitled, "GPCR-mediated Nongenomic Steroid Actions in Control of Alcohol-induced Behavior."

Congratulations to James Choi, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia. Dr. Choi is featured on the home page of Carver College of Medicine's web site within their Faculty Focus section as a physician of interest. He states this, "....do your best without complaint, persevere even when things are not going your way and never give up." When asked his advice to the medical students, Dr. Choi says, "Work hard but be sure to enjoy the process because life is what you do when you are trying to achieve your goals."

The Department of Anesthesia at the University of Iowa is very proud to claim Dr. Jim Choi as one of our own. To view the poster on display throughout the hospital, click here. Read more about Dr. Choi online at www.medicine.uiowa.edu/

Ramprasad Sripada, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor, has assumed the medical directorship of the Department of Anesthesia Acute Pain Service. As many of you know, this was started by Timothy Brennan, M.D., Ph.D., Samir D. Gergis Professor, Vice-Chair for Research, Interim Director for Pain Medicine, and for a long time this service has been an integral part of the Pain Clinic. However, both Dr. Brennan and I feel that a greater degree of autonomy for acute pain is appropriate; hence, my appointment of Dr. Sripada. Dr. Sripada has substantial experience in this area, having managed the Acute Pain Service at Vanderbilt prior to moving to Iowa. His expertise with regional anesthesia will also enhance the capabilities of the service. This is a substantial step forward for our department.