Fall 2020 Newsletter
Message from the President November 2020
Dear Colleagues, PCICS is now into its third decade of existence. The “purpose” statement of PCICS, which may be found on our website (https://pcics.org/about/history), was developed nearly two decades ago and has not been updated. PCICS today is now a much different organization. Instead of biannual meetings in South Florida, we now have annual meetings…
Read MoreChange is Good, Especially At The End Of A Year Like 2020
Nearly 4 years ago, as a PICU trainee still on the job hunt, I was “voluntold” that I would be in charge of creating a newsletter for PCICS. With literally no editorial experience, but tons of great mentorship and support from folks like Sarah Tabbutt, Mary Taylor, Sandy Staveski, and John Costello, as well as…
Read MoreWe are there at the beginning, we can help in the middle
The impetus for home monitoring two decades ago was unrelenting interstage mortality despite marked improvement in survival following stage 1 Norwood palliation. Interstage home monitoring was designed to prevent death through early detection of subtle physiologic changes with the goal of detecting important variances prior to critical deterioration. Since inception, home monitoring has gone through…
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Interstage Love in the Time of COVID:
Using telemedicine to bridge the social distance
Like many Interstage Single Ventricle Programs, our team at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago utilizes Interstage Home Monitoring (IHM) to provide an additional safety net for our most fragile infants. While IHM has been shown to improve survival during the interstage period, adverse events (including sudden death at home) still happen1,…
Read MoreSafe at Home
December 2020 marks the ten-year anniversary of Safe at Home (SAH), the interstage home monitoring program at Children’s Health Dallas’ Heart Center. Interstage is defined as the period between stage one palliation of single ventricle patients and the Glenn operation. Our program has grown substantially by joining the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC),…
Read MoreProgram Committee November 2020 Update
PCICS is excited to have opened registration for the 16th Annual International meeting, to be held on December 9-11, 2020. We encourage your participation in our premier all-virtual conference. Though the transition to a virtual format was necessary, we are thrilled for the novel opportunities this conference has enabled, including broader access to a worldwide…
Read MoreInternational Committee November 2020 Update
Update on the Effects the COVID-19 Pandemic Brazil Bruna Cury Hospital da Criança e Maternidade (HCM), Sao Jose do Rio Preto Our service has had very few pediatric cases suspected of COVID-19, and only one positive case (10 year old) with cardiovascular dysfunction, that was cared for in the main adult hospital. We have…
Read MoreEducation Committee November 2020 Update
Pushed by the realities of COVID-19, the PCICS Education Committee has entered a new era. Digital technology and increased adaption to virtual platforms have created the opportunities to utilize expertise all over the world in pediatric cardiac intensive care for the benefit of our members and our patients. We on the Education Committee are looking…
Read MoreNursing Special Interest Group November 2020 Updates
As with all professional groups, the individual SIG groups met unique challenges during the last 9 months supporting their institutions, patients/families, and each other in reorganizing care for the COVID-19 era. The 4 SIGs are continuing scheduled conference calls and working towards the achievement of their identified 2020 goals. Information regarding the SIGs, their goals…
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