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President's Message: February 2022

President's Message: February 2022
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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.

Meeting Schedule 

  • Winter Townhall: February 19, 2022
  • 2022 Annual Meeting- Clearwater Beach, FL May 19-22, 2022
  • 2022 Fall Virtual Symposium – September 24, 2022
  • 2023 Annual Meeting – Dallas, TX May 16-22, 2023

2022 Annual Meeting Poster Submissions 

On behalf of the 2022 Annual Meeting's organizational committee, we would like to invite you to submit research posters for our Annual ASNM meeting to be held in Clearwater, Florida May 19-22, 2022.
 
Please follow the instructions below for accurate submission:

SUBMISSION DEADLINE - EXTENDED
All posters must be submitted by Tuesday, February 15, 2022, no later than 11:59 p.m. CST. Posters received after the deadline will not be considered.
 
GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
  • Abstracts must be submitted only in English.
  • Required Format: Title, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion
  • Abstracts must be submitted through the online abstract submission site.
  • All authors should be listed with their credentials, certifications, and contact information
  • Names should be listed as First name, Middle initial, Last Name format.
  • Abstracts will be limited to 500 – 600 words
  • Acronyms should be spelled entirely (no abbreviations in the title).
  • The top ten abstracts will present live at the meeting
  • All other abstracts will be on display in the exhibit hall 
 
DISCLOSURE INFORMATION
All authors with accepted posters will be required to sign a conflict of interest and FDA disclosures form.
 
POSTERS REVIEW & DISCOUNT:
The research committee will review all submissions and notify only authors with accepted posters by Friday, April 15th, 2022. All selected posters will be displayed in electronic form. Presenting authors with accepted posters will get a $50 discount for registration.
E-Poster Submission Form
 

Webinars

All webinars are at 7pm EST

  • Intraoperative Neurophysiology of Cranial Nerves III, IV, and VI presented by Matt Hoffman April 6, 2022
Register Here 
 

ASNM Educational Courses

CNIM Prep Course presented by James Watt in March and October 2022
Register Here
 

ASNM Membership Push

The ASNM is honored to count you as one of our members, and we’d love for you to consider renewing your membership with us for 2022. The process to renew is fast and easy. Simply click on the invoice link in the coming email and pay online, or renew by logging into your ASNM member profile and following the prompts. If you experience any trouble at all, please contact us via email: [email protected]























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President's Message: March 2022

Have you registered for the 2022 ASNM Annual Meeting? 

The ASNM Annual Conference will be hosted in sunny Clearwater Beach, Florida. This will be ASNM's first in-person conference since 2019! All the more power for our members and fellow IONM colleagues to come together in one place to collaborate with each other on initiatives and relationships this virtual world has provided us!

The conference offers dual tracks, debates between two experts, lightning round discussions, poster presentations, high-level plenary session speakers, a reception, exhibit hall and diverse opportunities to expand your network. Stay up-to-date on current research in the field, expand your in-depth knowledge, and engage with key industry members, including technologists, physicians, and supplier representatives.

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President's Message: April 2022

Message from the President


Although the weather in Chicago is not very spring-like yet, hopefully many of you have had a chance to take a spring-break type vacation this year.  Although my family and I just enjoyed a spring break trip to Florida and we have the upcoming ASNM Annual Meeting in Clearwater, Florida in May, ASNM knows not everyone is fully comfortable with travel with pandemic concerns still looming.  Please know that we are taking this into consideration for the meeting--mask wearing will of course be welcomed and the annual business luncheon will be conducted outside this year.  Fortunately, we have been able to continue the strong educational offerings of our meetings virtually, but the opportunity to network with friends and colleagues, develop new academic collaborations, and offer or receive mentorship is a major component of in-person meetings that just cannot be replicated online.  Although we hope to see many members finally in-person this year to take advantage of these opportunities, for anyone not able to attend the Annual Meeting, ASNM will, as always, have a myriad of virtual educational offerings throughout the year, including this week’s April 6th Webinar.    
 
As noted in this communication below, it is again the time of year when ASNM seeks nominations for President and Board positions. For effective and productive leadership, we seek diversity to represent our membership and to have a balance of experience and continuity in these roles mixed with junior members who are enthusiastic to contribute.  Please nominate deserving members, but please also discuss with your potential nominees to ensure they have the interest and time to serve currently.  Remember too that committees need help and this can be a great way to be more involved with ASNM, too!
 
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts for ASNM.
 
Warm Regards, 
Laura Hemmer, M.D., FASA
ASNM President 


 

Have you registered for the 2022 ASNM Annual Meeting? 

The ASNM Annual Conference will be hosted in sunny Clearwater Beach, Florida. This will be ASNM's first in-person conference since 2019! All the more power for our members and fellow IONM colleagues to come together in one place to collaborate with each other on initiatives and relationships this virtual world has provided us!

The conference offers dual tracks, debates between two experts, lightning round discussions, poster presentations, high-level plenary session speakers, a reception, exhibit hall and diverse opportunities to expand your network. Stay up-to-date on current research in the field, expand your in-depth knowledge, and engage with key industry members, including technologists, physicians, and supplier representatives.













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President's Message: June 2022

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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President's Message: July 2022

July President's Message

Dear ##[Name | First]##,

 

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President's Message: December 2021

Dear ASNM Members:

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

President's Message: November 2021

Dear ASNM Members:

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

President's Message: September 2021

Dear ASNM Members:

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

President's Message: April 2021

Dear Members:

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.

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President's Message: January 2021

Dear Members, 

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 detailsMany 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 (DrW. 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!














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President's Message: December 2020

Dear Members, 
 
I want to thank all of you for standing firm and united during a challenging year. We have faced an unexpected environment at work and at home. We stood on our ASNM mission of providing high-quality Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring (IONM) to benefit patients for better postoperative outcomes, providing forums for education and disseminating knowledge in the field, developing quality standards for practice and training, and building partnerships coalitions with allied professionals.
 
The ASNM has been planning the new year 2021 with very informative and interactive educations programs for our members. We also want to improve our communication between ASNM members further. In 2021, ASNM will focus on providing you with educational and research-related opportunities, including basic and advance neuromonitoring techniques, up-to-date knowledge, and clinical/surgical information. There are opportunities for our members to present their research during our meetings and symposiums. I want to encourage our members and students to explore and advance the IONM technology during surgical and interventional procedures and share with our members during our educational programs. If you are interested in volunteering for any committee, please contact us now.
 
Thank you again, and looking forward to the new year: happy holidays and a Happy New Year to all members.

Best Regards, 


Faisal Jahangiri, MD, CNIM, DABNM, FASNM, FASET 
ASNM President 

President's Message: November 2020

Dear Members, 

 
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 

 










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President's Message: October 2020

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

  

President's Message: July 2020

Dear Members,

I hope everyone is staying safe. We are working on multiple projects for our members, and I want to update you about the important steps we have taken recently. First, I would like to welcome our new BOD member Larry Wierzbowski who had taken the seat of Laura Hemmer when she became President-Elect.

ASNM Clinical Effectiveness Ad-hoc Sub-committee: After discussions with many ASNM members, I have created ASNM Clinical Effectiveness Ad-hoc Subcommittee, which is co-chaired by Megan Alcauskas and Ryan Rosenhahn. This subcommittee will focus on the value and medical necessity of IONM in lumbar surgeries. It will submit proposals and recommendations within 90 days of its creation to the BOD. I want to thank all the members and advisors of the subcommittee for their time, efforts, and dedication to the ASNM and IONM.

September BOD Meeting: This year, the ASNM Board of Directors meeting will be conducted virtually on September 12th, 2020, from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm CST. This meeting is for our Board of Directors to meet and discuss the workings of the Society.

Meeting Schedule

  • September ASNM/CANM Virtual Symposium: The ASNM has partnered with CANM for this year’s Fall Symposium. The meeting was initially scheduled to take place Live in Vancouver, Canada. However, given the current state of COVID-19, we have decided to pivot to a Virtual Symposium. The ASNM Fall Committee Chairs and the CANM Fall Committee Chairs have been meeting to get the meeting agenda fixed for the virtual symposium. The new agenda, registration information, and the meeting format will be posted on our website very soon. The meeting will be held on the same dates as scheduled on September 19-20.
  • Winter 2021 Virtual Symposium: The ASNM Board of Directors has decided that we will begin 2021 with another Virtual Symposium. COVID-19 has changed the way meetings take place, and in the event COVID-19 impacts 2021, we would like to provide our members with educational content as well as the opportunity to receive CME and CEUs for the content. The date for this meeting has not yet been decided, but we hope to have more information out after our Fall Symposium.
  • 2021 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas: We are hoping that by May, we will be able to host our Annual Meeting in-person. As of now, the meeting will be hosted on May 20-23, 2021, at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. Once we get closer to the event, more information about the meeting will be communicated to our members. We cannot wait to see everyone in person again!

Call to Speakers for 2021:
If you or someone that you know of, would like to speak at ASNM’S 2021 Winter Virtual Meeting or our Annual Meeting in Dallas, please reach out to [email protected]. If interested, please include the presenter’s name, their credentials, the name of the event they would like to speak at, and the topic that they would like to present.

Webinars: All webinars are at 7 pm EST: ASNM will continue to offer educational activities in summer. Jeremy Bamford will present the webinar, Intraoperative Sensory and Motor Mapping of the Human Homunculus, on July 15th. Please click HERE to Register Today!

Julie Trott will present the webinar, Impact of Anesthesia on the Diagnostic Process of IONM During Spine Procedures: An Interactive Review, on August 26th. Please Click HERE to Register Today!

CNIM Concepts Mini-Course: We will be hosting another CNIM Concepts course this Fall. The dates are September 26th, October 3rd, and October 10th, 2020, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm EST. If you or your colleagues are planning to take CNIM, these courses will help in preparing for the CNIM exam. Please click HERE to register.

Thank you for your continued support and for being a valuable member.

Faisal Jahangiri
MD, CNIM, D.ABNM, FASNM, FASET
President, ASNM

President's Message: June 2020 - ASNM Statement of Solidarity

Dear ASNM Members,

The ASNM Board believes it is crucial at this time, to publicly state our support for each and every patient, member, colleague and other healthcare professional regardless of his/her race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

We recognize that many people are hurting right now. As health care providers and clinicians of diverse backgrounds who treat patients of every background, we remain committed to continuing to promote diversity, inclusivity, and equality within the entire IONM field.

The ASNM has been taking steps to ensure our Society embraces and promotes diversity and inclusion. The creation of the Diversity Taskforce in 2019 is one of those steps and will serve to make sure our Board and membership embody and promote equality in our field. We will continue to build upon this taskforce to ensure a brighter future for the ASNM and all providers in this field.

Respectfully,
The ASNM Board of Directors

President's Message: May 2020

Dear ASNM Members:

I am very excited and humbled to become the President of the American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring (ASNM) for the year 2020-21. When starting as a medical student thirty-five years ago in Pakistan, or while driving hundreds of miles daily as a new IONM technologist covering surgeries in various states (some years later in the USA), I had not thought that one day I would be leading a premier organization like ASNM. But here I am writing this letter to you - it is truly an honor and a blessing of God.

I moved to the USA in 1992, along with my wife for higher education. After completing my graduate education in Biomedical Engineering, I started my career as a technologist in Detroit, MI, with Biotronic. Over the past two decades, I have been fortunate to work in diverse IONM capacities such as a technologist, neurophysiologist, supervisor, trainer, and as an educator. I have provided in-house and remote-physician oversight for a wide range of procedures. Over the years, I have worked with some phenomenal people in various companies. To all of them, I say thank you for being my colleague, educator, and friend. Some of the IONM companies where I have worked include Sentient, Impulse, Specialitycare, Safe Passage, and Neuro Alert. I have also done IONM-related work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan. Currently, I work with Axis Neuromonitoring in their Richardson, TX location. I am blessed working with people at Axis that care about improving IONM to the best of its capacity. I have been an active member of the ASNM since 2002. I have volunteered in membership, education, research, guidelines, monitor, and applied philanthropic committees. I have been fortunate to have attended every annual meeting since 2002; however, this year will be the first time, where I would have missed a physical meeting of ASNM. I pray that we meet again under better circumstances.

Let’s first discuss some of the challenges we as IONM people face under the current times. The current COVID-19 situation has significantly changed not only our personal lives but the manner under which we operate professionally. The beginning of the pandemic saw the cancellation of elective surgeries, which significantly affected IONM services as well. We have soon picked after; however, we are not out of the woods yet. We need to keep striving to keep ‘IONM’ out of the ‘elective’ category. As IONM professionals, one of the most critical tasks that we should always keep in mind is to educate the healthcare staff around us about the essential nature of IONM. The current pandemic has resulted in the world being connected more than ever in the virtual environment. It has thus made it easier to educate about IONM with all the different platforms available for meetings, webinars, and such. No longer do we have to wait to meet in conferences to disseminate knowledge about IONM. We can do so at the click of a button with groups of various sizes. Reimbursement for IONM services by insurance companies is another challenge that we in the ASNM society face regularly. However, I feel that this challenge is again primarily related to the lack of information and education that is prevalent about the necessity of IONM services. This second challenge is also perhaps related to some unethical practices by a handful of IONM practitioners that have resulted in insurance companies getting into the practice of denying IONM claims.

Let’s talk about education now. Over the past years, first, as a member and later as the membership committee chair, I have been able to get your inputs about education. ASNM has been successfully offering multiple webinars free to its members every year. This year we had a successful virtual winter symposium, and recently our first Town Hall Motor Evoked Potentials (MEP) Interactive Webinar. We plan to provide more educational activities for our members this year – however, a tremendous amount of work is needed in the coming years. We need new people to volunteer in various committees. I request every member to pitch in their services, whether it be joining a committee, speaking at a meeting, submitting new research for conferences, or running for office, etc. I would like to invite you to participate in multicenter high caliber research, publish outcome studies to show the benefits of IONM, ask colleagues and friends to join as members, combine forces with other related organizations, educate the insurance companies about the benefits of IONM and strengthen our advocacy efforts to lobby for ASNM and IONM related issues.

Over the next year, we will continue to strengthen our professionalism through education, training, research, and better resources. I believe if we work hard and together, ASNM will become stronger and better and reemerge as a leading society in the field of IONM. We are proud of our past and excited about the ASNM future.

I would like to thank ASNM past president, Rich Vogel, for his dedication and contribution to the ASNM. I would also like to thank the outgoing Board of Directors Jeff Gertsch, Leah Hanson, Bryan Wilent, and of our members for making last year possible. I would like to thank everyone else at ASNM here that I have not mentioned by name – thanks for being a mentor, an educator, and for raising the ranks of ASNM at which it stands today. I would like to welcome our new President-Elect, Dr. Laura Hemmer, and board members Clare Gale, Cheryl Wiggins, Tara Stewart, Lanjun Guo, and Larry Wierzbowski. Special thanks to our industry sponsors for their continuous support and a tremendous job by our management team at Affinity Strategies.

Thank you again for this opportunity.

Best regards,
Faisal R. Jahangiri
MD, CNIM, D.ABNM, FASNM, FASET
President ASNM