July President's Message |
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Dear ##[Name | First]##,
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July President's Message |
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Dear ##[Name | First]##,
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June President's Message |
Awesome 2022 Annual ASNM Meeting!! A bunch of things to touch base on and highlight from the ASNM Meeting. |
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Dear ASNM Members:
Happy New Year, and I hope this message finds you and your families healthy and well. For the first time in the pandemic, I am feeling hopeful that the disruption to our lives may soon ease as cases come down this time.
In my last message, I promised that construction on the updated website would not take long, but this has proven to be a more technically challenging project than anyone at ASNM anticipated. Thanks for everyone’s ongoing patience, and thank you especially to Board of Directors Member and Chair of the Website Sub-Committee Mr. Michael Riley and to our Affinity partner Cayla for their many hours of work and attention to detail on this project.
The Committee on Accreditation for Education in Neurodiagnostic Technology (CoA-NDT) works to review and evaluate educational programs in neurodiagnostic technology and intraoperative neuromonitoring. ASNM has been happy to participate on the CoA-NDT with two representatives from ASNM serving, Ms. Clare Gale and Mr. Joshua Mergos. After six years of participation on the committee, Mr. Mergos has elected to transition off. Thank you to Mr. Mergos for his time on the committee and for his attention to helping facilitate a smooth transition to our new well-qualified co-representative, Ms. Kolleen Chulski.
Please save the date for our first in-person meeting since 2019 with the Annual Meeting in Clearwater, Florida (May 19-22, 2022). I think you will find the agenda to not only be filled with the top-notch educational opportunities ASNM consistently offers but to also be rather exciting and innovative in both its format and topics. It is so innovative that it is requiring a few logistical modifications, so the official agenda is forthcoming shortly! Thanks to the co-chairs of the meeting, Drs. Marat Avshalumov, Jay Shils, and Tara Stewart for their dedication and thoughtful planning. In the meantime, please see below for more details on the virtual Winter Symposium this month featuring presentations by experts in the field, Drs. Mirela Simon and Rich Vogel, who will then be joined by an additional group of diverse experts for a panel discussion. Thank you also to these meeting co-chairs, Drs. Marat Avshalumov and Joe Moreira, for their creativity in planning this surely excellent symposium.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with thoughts for ASNM.
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As I write this, a number of our ASNM members had likely planned to be in Chicago and attending the International Society of Intraoperative Neurophysiology (ISIN) Congress this week. Sadly, but understandably, that meeting had to be postponed for health and safety concerns with the ongoing and again worsening pandemic. ASNM was excited for that meeting in part because we were going to be co-hosting a portion of the meeting as a component of our ongoing efforts at increasing collaboration with peer medical societies! We appreciate the collaboration with ISIN and will look forward to the next ISIN Congress in the United States.
After another successful ASNM election, with so many excellent candidates willing to serve our society’s mission, it is a good time to highlight our committees. It is within these committees where much of the work of ASNM is initiated, advanced, and achieved to help meet the society’s goals on behalf of our membership. These committees are also the place where more members can make direct contributions to ASNM and our shared mission. All committees are listed on the ASNM website under “Member Center” with a brief description and the committee chair. After reviewing the committee information, if you are interested in serving and being more actively involved with your professional society, please contact ASNM! Congratulations, too, to the newly elected Board Members, some who are dedicated returning members and some who are welcome new members! I look forward to working with you all for ASNM, and thank you to all the candidates.
The ASNM website, as you likely now know, has been updated. Thank you to Cayla and the Affinity team who have spent a lot of time on this update, but the website is now more modern and serviced by a trusted and more economical Affinity partner. From a recent society “health check” (pre-website update), I learned that, thanks to our engaged members, the open rate for email communications from ASNM and “click through” rate are both well above average for non-profit organizations! This is evidence that a modernized website will be crucial for member needs. I find the new website very easy to navigate for obtaining education offerings and other information already, but navigating further reveals a few areas that are still unfinished (but not for long!), such as the advocacy and patient information areas. These have current content ready to be added. Please excuse the construction for a little longer.
With our first anticipated in-person annual meeting since 2019, and numerous other virtual educational opportunities throughout the year, don’t forget your membership renewal before January 1st. Renewal is fast and easy through the website, but please contact us if you have questions. Finally, thanks to the efforts of the membership committee and its Chair, Dr. Faisal Jahangiri, ASNM will be offering membership price tiers for international members per the World Bank Economies Classifications, to make our membership more accessible and fair for all.
As we are now into nearly mid-December, I hope you have time to enjoy the holiday season and have some free time during which to safely enjoy the company of friends and family.
Happy Holidays and Warmest Regards,
Laura Hemmer, M.D., FASA
ASNM President
Future ASNM society planning has been progressing during the fall as we now happily have finalized dates and contracts for in-person annual meetings for both 2022 and 2023, with contract options being actively investigated for 2024 too. ASNM leaders also met virtually to work on strategic planning in order to identify areas for continuing focus and improvement. A summary of this planning will be forthcoming to the Board and, once finalized, to all members. By the time this message is sent, member voting will have just recently closed for the President-Elect and Board of Directors elections. Thank you to all members who participated in the election by voting! Thanks especially also to the excellent slate of candidates, all of whom are offering to generously volunteer their time to serve our society.
The Membership Committee has a new ad-hoc subcommittee, on which Ms. Clare Gale has kindly agreed to serve as Subcommittee Chair, and the subcommittee will help welcome trainees (students, residents, fellows) to participate with the society. The productive Representation and Advocacy Committee has produced engaging and informative brief new videos geared for patients on IONM. We look forward to placement of these videos on the newly renovated ASNM website to be unveiled soon.
Please see below for details on the variety of ASNM Recognition Awards and think of your member peers deserving of special reward for nomination! Although we are a few months away from our next meeting, as you can see below, a plethora of education opportunities are available in the meantime. Please also consider presenting at the 2022 Annual Meeting, perhaps by submitting an abstract for poster presentation with details and deadlines as below.
As always, please feel free to contact me to send me your thoughts for ASNM.
Kind Regards,
Laura Hemmer, M.D., FASA
ASNM President
Heading into fall, we have several ASNM activities in which to look forward. Please join us for the soon approaching Fall Virtual Symposium. Board Members and Meeting Co-Program Chairs Clare Gale and Justin Silverstein sought speakers able to highlight “Pearls and Gems for Real World IONM Application”, and this is sure to be an expert-filled discussion of practical knowledge and nuance for IONM challenges. I am also excited about the upcoming Webinar by Dr. Emery Brown, “The Dynamics of Anesthesia Induced Unconsciousness”. Dr. Brown is an anesthesiologist and neuroscientist, and in the anesthesiology world and beyond, he is absolutely a “superstar”. His research work has focused on development of statistical methods and signal-processing algorithms for neuroscience data analysis and his pioneering work has led to insight into how anesthetics produce unconsciousness. I have been fortunate to hear him speak on multiple occasions, and he will surely meet the high standard set by ASNM’s Webinar speakers! Thank you, once again to Patty Warf and the Webinar Subcommittee for coordinating such expert speakers on varied topics pertinent to IONM.
The ASNM Diversity Taskforce launched a Diversity and Inclusion survey this summer for members and results will be reviewed this fall. If you have not yet completed the survey, please do so—it only takes a few minutes and input from many members will be most valuable. Click here to take the survey. Work in the busy Representation and Advocacy Committee, as outlined in my last update, continues to progress well. Thank you to all the committee members dedicating time and experience to ASNM efforts.
As we head into cooler days, unfortunately most of us are facing, once again, challenges due to surging COVID rates. Many of us may feel tremendous frustration that this surge could have been avoided, yet healthcare workers have continued to provide excellent care in the United States throughout this pandemic. Thank you to all our members working throughout the evolving pandemic while perhaps also managing myriad challenges and worries at home. Healthcare professionals of all disciplines deserve tremendous thanks for their patient care contributions throughout the pandemic.
As always, please feel free to contact me to send me your thoughts for ASNM.
Kind Regards,
Laura Hemmer, M.D., FASA
ASNM President
I am delighted to announce that we started this year with another successful Virtual Meeting! This was a truly fantastic program put together by Dr. Christopher Pace and Dr. Marat Avshalumov. Special thanks to the education committee for their input and support and amazing work by Cayla Marconi, Executive Director, and Affinity Strategies team members. The ASNM Winter Virtual Symposium brought in 238 attendees, 13 of those being international, and seven amazing sponsors.
We look forward to more virtual Meetings this year and hope you continue to attend these conferences! This year our annual meeting and fall meetings will be held virtually in May and Sep 2021, respectively. With the collaboration of my co-chairs Dr. Tara Stewart and Dr. Cheryl Wiggins, we have finalized another unique educational program for our members and anyone who would like to attend and learn more about IONM. The theme of our 2021 Annual meeting is ‘Neuromonitoring-Diving Deep.’ We will have three simulation labs, a D.ABNM review course, and nine different IONM sessions over three days. (Disclaimer: The ASNM in no way endorses the products being used for these workshops. This is strictly used for educational content for the ASNM Annual Meeting). There will be live questions and answers sessions with panel discussions with an excellent opportunity for you to get involved and ask questions to our national and international speakers. This year ASNM is offering first time a session ‘IONM Around the Globe’. We will have speakers and panelists around the world participating in that session. We have a discount rate for registration that will expire on May 03, 2021. We also have a special Student rate for our student members, residents, and fellows for the annual Meeting.
Happy New Year. We are starting a new year with a global COVID-19 surge and have to remain isolated from friends and family. Thank you to all those who are working on the frontline and giving care to patients every day with danger to yourself and your families. In 2020, even though we could not meet in person, we were able to accomplish a lot, from philanthropy to transfer of knowledge to advocacy, research, and so much more.
During last year we accomplished a very successful first virtual winter meeting. We had excellent speakers who presented on various IONM related topics. In May, we canceled our Annual in-person meeting and instead had our first town hall meeting on Motor Evoked Potentials (MEP). With over 240 attendees, we received excellent feedback. We are planning to have more town hall meetings in the future. ASNM offered CNIM concepts mini-course and will offer it again this year. In fall, we had our first joint ASNM/ CANM joint meeting as a virtual Fall Symposium. We had an excellent program with 208 attendees from 10 different countries across the globe. Dr. Christopher Pace and Dr. Marat Avshalumov have finalized an excellent 2021 Winter Symposium with the theme "IONM: From Theory to Everyday Practice - Focus on Case Studies". Please visit the ASNM website for the program agenda and registration details. Many thanks to the program chairs for extraordinary meetings.
On the education and research front, I created ASNM Clinical Effectiveness Ad-hoc Sub-committee, which is co-chaired by Megan Alcauskas and Ryan Rosenhahn. This subcommittee is working on the value and medical necessity of IONM in lumbar surgeries. We are looking forward to this committee's proposals and recommendations during our next board of directors meeting in May 2021. I want to thank all the subcommittee members and advisors for their time, efforts, and dedication to the ASNM and IONM.
To fulfill the need for a subcommittee, to focus on education and awareness about IONM on the ASNM website and various social media platforms, I created ASNM Social Media Ad-Hoc Sub-committee. I want to thank all the subcommittee members and advisors for their time, efforts, and dedication to the ASNM and IONM.
ASNM Webinar committee organized extremely informative webinars and invited speakers with expertise in our field to address various IONM topics throughout the pandemic. ASNM launched four new award categories for its members. Please visit the ASNM website for more information and the nomination process for the 2021 awards.
ASNM elections were held in the fall. We have four new board members (Rebecca Clark-Bash, Melisa Kirkup, Michael Riley, and Dr. Lawrence Wierzbowski) and President-Elect (Dr. W. Bryan Wilent). The term for all winners will begin after the May 2021 Annual Meeting. My sincere thanks to everyone who was on the ballot. We hope you will continue to support ASNM and will participate again in future elections.
My gratitude to the executive committee, board of directors, committee/subcommittee chairs, all members, attendees, Affinity-Strategies, and sponsors for their continued support of the ASNM for making 2020 a successful year. We have lined up excellent educational programs in 2021 (winter symposium, annual meeting, fall symposium). We are looking forward to increasing our membership and meet you all in person soon.
Thank you, and best wishes for 2021.
Stay safe!
We are at the end of the year and looking forward to embracing the coming year 2021. If you are a current or past ASNM member, I would like to ask you to take a few minutes and renew your membership today. You should reach out to all of your friends and colleague to join ASNM to support the IONM profession. The COVID-19 has prevented us from having any in-person meetings, but ASNM is staying stronger and working very hard to provide the best educational programs to its members and others.
I want to thank all the excellent and dedicated candidates who ran for the ASNM office in the 2020 elections. The polls were closed in October, and the winners announced are below. Our heartiest congratulations to board members Rebecca Clark-Bash, Melisa Kirkup, Michael Riley, Dr. Lawrence Wierzbowski, and also Dr. W. Bryan Wilent, who will join the board as a new President-Elect in May 2021.
Over the next year, ASNM will continue to work with you and other related societies to strengthen our professionalism through education, training, and research. We are dedicated to working hard as a team to make ASNM stronger and better and leading society in the field of IONM. We are proud of our past and excited about the ASNM future.
Best Regards,
Faisal Jahangiri, MD, CNIM, DABNM, FASNM, FASET
ASNM President
Dear Members,
First of all, I would like to congratulate ASNM, CANM, and committee chair groups that pulled off a fantastic Fall meeting. Willy Boucharel and Lanjun Guo From ASNM and Kristine Pederson and Marshall Wilkinson from CANM did an excellent job organizing this meeting. On behalf of the ASNM board of directors, I would like to thank the President of the CANM, Dr. Jamie Johnston, for her support in planning this symposium.
This first joint ASNM/ CANM joint meeting was initially planned for an in-person meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, ASNM and CANM Executive Committees and the Board of Directors decided to proceed with the Fall Symposium as a virtual meeting to ensure our members, attendees, and speakers' safety. The virtual platform allowed attendees to benefit from this program across the globe. We had a total of 208 attendees registered, reaching ten different countries. We cannot thank our attendees and sponsors enough for their continued support of the ASNM. We hope we can reach more people in the field of IONM with more meetings with rich content.
Please check out our website if you would like to purchase the recordings of the ASNM/CANM Fall Virtual Symposium. You can also click here!
Best Regards
Faisal Jahangiri, MD, CNIM, DABNM, FASNM, FASET
ASNM President
Article Title: Use of the train-of-five bipolar technique to provide reliable, spatially accurate motor cortex identification in asleep patients
Article Title: Utility of Motor and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials for Neural Thermoprotection in Ablations of Musculoskeletal Tumors