CLINICAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

News From the Clinical Affairs Committee

Abhijit V. Lele, MBBS, MD, MS, FNCS
Chair, Clinical Affairs Committee

Abhijit V. Lele, MBBS, MD, MS, FNCS

The Clinical Affairs Committee (CAC) is appointed and charged with responsibilities associated with the perioperative care of patients with neurological conditions. The committee is focused on developing a) clinical care pathways (needs assessment, planning, development, periodically updating, and disseminating to SNACC members), and b) patient safety initiatives and programs, consistent with the SNACC mission, strategic plan, and/or direction provided by the SNACC Board of Directors.

Over the last year, CAC members have been active in three areas:

• The development of evidence-based guidelines/recommendations for enhancing perioperative care of patients undergoing major complex spine surgery. This comprehensive review of the pre-hospital, pre-operative, intra and post-operative care will be published soon in the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology.
• The development of evidence-based guidelines/recommendations for enhancing perioperative care of patients undergoing supratentorial craniotomy for brain tumor resection.
• Preparations to launch the external ventricular drain (EVD) safety campaign. This global undertaking is intended to increase awareness, enhance education, and improve the quality of care for patients with EVD. Institutional project leaders will receive access to the online EVD training module, the EVD educational document/SNACC EVD guidelines, and information on collecting EVD-associated quality metrics data. SNACC is looking for leaders to launch the campaign at their respective institutions.

For more information on how to participate in the EVD safety campaign or if you are interested in being a committee member, please contact Dr. Abhijit V. Lele at abhijit2@uw.edu.