AANS Approves Head Injury Guidelines
The AANS Board of Directors approved the Guidelines for the Management and Prognosis of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. This includes updated guidelines for the management of severe head injury and the addition of a new section on early indicators of prognosis in severe traumatic brain injury. The combined sections will be published and available in book form by fall of 2000.
2000 Annual Meeting Courses Put Online
AANS members now can view presentations from the 2000 Annual Meeting on the AANS Web site. Presentations include plenary sessions, special courses, breakfast seminars and special lectures. This service is free for a limited time. The site is www.aans.org. Courses are organized by category. Each category is cross-referenced with the presenter’s name, and each course title is listed within each category. Each online presentation was developed from videotaped sessions or by formatting slides from the course into an online video format. Site visitors can view the complete course, including a transcript of the presentation. After using this special online program, remember to fill out the evaluation form. AANS needs to assess the interest in this service for future meetings-and make CME available. The project was supported by MedLeader.com, Inc., in collaboration with Caliber Learning Network, Inc.
AANS Penalizes Two Members
The AANS Board of Directors voted in April to suspend the membership of a Connecticut neurosurgeon for six months for unprofessional conduct while testifying as an expert witness in a medical malpractice case. The Board found that his testimony that spinal epidural, sub-dural and subarchnoid hemorrhages were equivalent for the purposes of diagnoses and treatment decision making was incorrect, as was his testimony that the standard of neurological care required immediate surgery. The Board also found that he failed to review all pertinent medical information prior to offering his opinion and that he inappropriately acted as an advocate for one side of the case. The Board also issued a letter of censure in April to a Washington neurosurgeon for unprofessional conduct regarding his testimony as an expert witness in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The neurosurgeon testified that doing a bypass procedure prior to treating a thin-walled clotted aneurysm was the neurological standard of care. Agreeing with the Professional Conduct Committee, the Board concluded that the neurosurgeon failed to identify that opinion as his own, one not generally accepted by other neurosurgeons.
AANS Develops Guidelines Repository
The AANS Department of Education and Practice Man-age-ment is developing a Guidelines Repository for Neurosurgery containing almost 50 clinical guidelines. Members will be able to electronically access a database of internal and external clinical guidelines associated with Neurosurgery. The repository is the beginning of a “living” document that will continue to evolve reflecting the advances in guideline development. Any information on additional neurosurgical guidelines that can be included in the document would be greatly appreciated. For information, call Jane Ries, AANS Practice Administrator, at (847) 378-0558 or e-mail her at [email protected].
AANS Communications Projects Recognized
AANS recently received two awards of recognition for communications initiatives from the American Association of Medical Society Executives. The awards were presented during ceremonies held in July at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Seattle. AANS received a Certificate of Achievement for Management Excellence for AANS Online Initiatives and a Certificate of Achievement for Community Excellence for work done with the CNS on the Getting Smart About Cerebrovascular Disease: An Education Program on Stroke.
Brain Injury Guidelines Taught
The third phase of the Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF) program to develop and teach the Guidelines for the Prehospital Management of Traumatic Brain Injury began in 2000 with a national roll-out of the program in 11 locations. Program implementation varies in each state to accommodate local system needs and differences and all are initiated with state public health officials and regional medical directors. Addition-ally, two excellent centers have been chosen to collaborate with BTF on research and evaluation components of this project: University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham and Inova Fairfax Hospital in northern Virginia. The program is planned for 19 additional states. For more information or to purchase the Pre-hospital Guidelines, call Pamela Walker, BTF Project Director, (212) 772-0608. The Pre-hospital and In-hospital Guidelines can be reviewed at the BTF site, www.braintrauma.org.