President’s Message

SATA and Transplant Anesthesia: towards a bright future!

Presidents Message

It is with great pleasure and humility that I introduce myself as the President of the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia starting in August 2023 for a two-year term.

The Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (SATA) was founded in 2011 by Dr. Ernest Pretto, Jr as a society that represents all of transplant anesthesiology in North America with a commitment to advance our specialty through education, research and as a societal representation of our growing specialty. Dr. Susan Mandell, the second president took over as president in 2016 and further expanded the size and scope of this society and formalized its structure. I am now taking over from Dr Tetsuro Sakai, who has led this society to unparalleled growth and success over the last two years. Our membership has more than doubled; we have regular educational meetings including over seven regional meetings in the entire United States and created a research consortium and multiple guidelines for the transplant anesthesia fellowship and patient management. We increased our collaboration with other societies nationally and internationally and have become the one, respected representative of all transplant anesthesiology in North America. Most recently, we have become a member of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), evidence that the contribution of anesthesiology for the success of transplantation is clearly and strongly recognized in the transplant community.

Transplantation has made huge strides in the last 20 years and the surgeries, once experimental and high-risk are now performed as routine procedures that save an ever-increasing number of patients. This success was not in small part due to steady improvement of the anesthetic management of these patients. On the way, transplant anesthesiology became a sub-specialty in its own right and SATA its rightful representative. Traditionally, transplant anesthesiology has been seen a field of liver and abdominal transplantation. SATA, however, consists of abdominal and transplant anesthesiologists and is the first and only society in the US that includes both fields of transplant anesthesia; SATA has been able to bring these two areas of transplant anesthesia together to form an equitable society that allows all of us to learn from each other to become better anesthesiologists. We are cardiac liver, kidney, lung transplant anesthesiologist and critical care physicians taking care of adults and children and SATA is our home.

We see an increasing number of residents who chose transplant anesthesiology for fellowship and as a career. Transplant anesthesiologist work closely in research and patient management with surgeons, hepatologist, cardiologist, pulmonologist and the entire transplant community and we are increasingly involved in the administrative and logistical aspects of transplantation. SATA will continue to contribute to this dialogue across specialties for the benefit of our patients and members.

For the next two years I envision a continuation of the great progress we made in the last two years: as for education we will continue to organize meetings such as our annual, national meeting, regional meetings and conferences in collaboration with other societies. We will continue to develop guidelines for patient management and create a network for trainees and junior faculty that will facilitate access to career advice and mentorship. The young anesthesiologists are our future, and we will do everything to create a society that is welcoming for the young, diverse transplant anesthesiologists. We want to be your home; a place that makes anybody comfortable to become involved in, ask questions and learn.

We will increase our research effort, advancing our knowledge of transplant anesthesia by fostering research collaborations and providing the necessary start-up spark for successful research careers through grant funding. This can include our effort to create a national database of transplant anesthesia cases that will (possible in collaboration with other databases) be able answer many of the research questions that remain unanswered. Without research, there will be no progress in medicine and SATA has a strong commitment to support research in our specialty.

I am grateful for the support of SATA’s leadership team that includes our Council members Lorenzo De Marchi, MD (President-Elect: Georgetown University), Jiapeng Huang, MD, PhD (Secretary: University of Louisville), and Ranjit Deshpande (Treasurer: Yale School of Medicine), as well as Executive Councilors Adrian Hendrickse , BM, FRCA (University of Colorado), Sathish S. Kumar MD (University of Michigan), Raymond Planinsic, MD (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center)  and Michael Ander, MD (Loyola Medicine).  These colleagues and friends are what makes SATA run and expand.

I am confident that we will see the continued growth and expansion of our specialty, transplant anesthesiology and its society, SATA. But we cannot do this alone. Join your colleagues in SATA, get engaged and find like-minded friends to become part of the leadership of our specialty. The future of transplant anesthesia is bright!  Be part of this future, join SATA and get involved. We will welcome you with open arms. I am looking forward to work with all of you.

 

Gebhard