Workshops

Please Note: NCS Annual Meeting workshop sessions require an additional fee. All workshop sessions that do not meet the minimum requirement of attendees by August 14, 2020, will be canceled. In the event that your workshop is canceled, a member of the NCS Headquarters team will contact you.

Monday, Sept. 21 and Tuesday, Sept. 22

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) Course Part 1-2

Course Director: Wendy Ziai, MD, MPH
Dates & times for this two-part course are listed below. 

This workshop offers two full-day sessions, equaling two full days of coursework and hands-on skills development for transcranial doppler. Credits can be obtained to count toward the total 40 hours required to qualify for the ASN Neurosonology examination (www.asnweb.org). The completion of the full two-part course will provide attendees with an in-depth review of applied principles of ultrasound physics, cerebral hemodynamics, critical review of clinical indications of transcranial Doppler, reading reports, billing tips and building a neurovascular program. Attendees will get hands-on experience in both imaging and non-imaging Doppler. Interactive case presentations can be credited toward the 100 total case interpretation experience required to take the TCD part of the ASN examination.

• Part 1, Introduction, Basics & Hands-on
• Monday, September 21 at 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
• Hands-on training on performing TCD
• Part 2, Clinical Application & Case Review
• Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) Simulation

Course Directors: Deepa Malaiyandi, MD & Nick Morris, MD
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Recommended for ENLS-certified attendees.

The Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) Simulation Workshop is designed to bring the content of the ENLS course together using simulation-based education. During the 4-hour session, participants will have the opportunity to synthesize and apply the concepts of ENLS as they manage challenging hands-on cases portrayed via high-fidelity manikins. All participants will also benefit from formal debriefing sessions led by the workshop faculty. Prior familiarization with the ENLS content is highly recommended. The workshop is ideally suited for those who are already certified and those registered for certification who are looking for a more engaging and in-depth review of course content.

Mechanical Ventilation Boot Camp: An Interactive Introductor Course

Course Director: Jeffrey M. Singh, MD, MSc
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Mechanical ventilation is a cornerstone of modern life support and a core competency of neurocritical care. This is a half-day course will provide the fundamentals of mechanical ventilation using hands-on and simulator-based sessions.   Brief interactive lectures will complement case-based sessions covering basic respiratory physiology, the application, monitoring and troubleshooting of mechanical ventilation, patient-ventilator interactions, and weaning and liberation. Context-specific considerations such as ventilation in brain injury, spinal cord injury and ARDS will also be discussed.

Target Audience: This is an introductory course. Ideal attendees are fellows, physicians, advanced practice providers or nurses who want to acquire fundamental and detailed knowledge of the basic provision of mechanical ventilation in neurocritical care.

Applied Neuromonitoring

Course Director: Brandon Foreman, MD, FACNS, FNCS
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

This workshop provides an overview to the practical implementation of managing, visualizing, and reporting the data from a patient undergoing invasive multimodal neuromonitoring established through real cases. Attendees will learn the fundamentals of practical data acquisition and analysis, and explore considerations for interpretation and/or reporting to clinical teams. Finally, we will provide an overview of possibilities for research using high-resolution data.

Attendees will discover methods to acquire and process multimodality data for real-time management and research. Knowledge of programming and scripting languages, though welcome, is not required to successfully participate in this course. We recommend that you bring a laptop (with administrator access in order to be able to install the software) to fully benefit from this course.

Critical Care EEG

Course Director: Ayham Alkhachroum, MD
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

This workshop will focus on the practical utilization of EEG in the ICU. The overall goal is to empower attendees with knowledge about the current and future potential of EEG as a neuromonitoring tool. We will introduce EEG basics including acquisition, quantitative analysis, and interpretation. We will cover the use of EEG in the management of status epilepticus and ictal-interictal continuum, ischemia monitoring, and neuroprognositication. The workshop will entail theoretical overview, case examples, and interactive group discussion to familiarize participants with the use of the EEG software.

Critical Care Ultrasound

Course Director: Neha Dangayach, MD, MSCR
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Critical care ultrasound skills have become an indispensable extension of our exam in the practice of intensive care. In critically ill patients, several high-quality studies have shown that point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) has high sensitivity and specificity for managing patients with shock, respiratory failure, trauma, etc. POCUS has also become a standard of care for performing bedside procedures such as central line placement, paracentesis, thoracentesis, etc.

Neurocritically ill patients may suffer from several cardiopulmonary co-morbidities and complications. Being proficient in cardiopulmonary POCUS can help neurocritical care providers to rapidly diagnose and treat complications like heart failure, septic shock, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, etc.

This workshop will provide participants with rigorous instruction in the acquisition and use of cardiopulmonary ultrasonography in the neurocritical care setting. Attendees will learn introductory knobology for imaging optimization using different ultrasound machines and perform heart and lung ultrasounds. Clinical algorithms using heart and lung ultrasound and case-based reviews of use of ultrasound in the deteriorating patient will be presented via high-quality didactics, followed by hands-on skills stations.

Advanced Practice Providers

Course Director: Rachel Hausladen, NP
Tuesday, September 22 at 8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Advanced Practice Providers contribute to the care of critically ill neuroscience patients in many ways. This session focuses on both clinical care and role-specific professional issues. Information will be presented using a case-based approach, allowing participants to apply diagnostic reasoning and management principles, integrating critical care concepts. Professional practice issues will also be addressed, with a focus on achieving satisfaction and purpose throughout your career.

Bioinformatics and Machine Learning for Data-Driven Research

Course Director: Rajat Dhar, MD
Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Attendees are required to bring a laptop to this workshop.

Innovative analysis of healthcare data with will form the foundation for scientific discovery over the next generation of medical research. Such data-driven discovery has the potential to revolutionize the practice of neurocritical care, a discipline steeped in acquisition of multi-dimensional “Big Data” on our patients: from physiology, complications, imaging, to biology and outcomes. The central tools driving breakthroughs in Precision Medicine derive from advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Harnessing such machine learning techniques for your own research is now feasible through availability of user-friendly platforms for Python programming such as Jupyter Notebook with easily accessible libraries tailored to simplify advanced statistical modeling.

This interactive workshop will provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration and manipulation of diverse de-identified datasets encompassing clinical data, physiology, and imaging. Machine learning concepts and basics of Python coding will be taught using real-world examples relevant to neurocritical care with libraries such as numpy, matplotlib, and scikit-learn. Demonstrations of building more complex deep learning models and neural networks will be provided using toolkits such as Keras and PyTorch. Testing of resulting models (fit, calibration) and how to interpret results of machine learning experiments will be explored in interactive sessions.

Attendees are expected to have a background in basic statistical modeling and Python coding (or access preparatory material providing for pre-reading). They will be required to bring a functional laptop to the session and will be provided links to download necessary software.

Intracranial Monitoring

Course Director: Amedeo Merenda, MD
Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

This hands-on workshop focuses on the fundamentals and bedside implementation of both basic and advanced intracranial monitoring technologies for the goal of preventing or minimizing secondary brain injury. It is designed for healthcare providers in neurology, neurosurgery, emergency medicine and intensive care who care for patients with acute severe brain injury. The first hour of the course provides a review of the indications and interpretation of intracranial monitoring technologies that can assist in clinical-decision making and optimization of care for patients with acute brain injury. The majority of the workshop is a hands-on training session in which all attendees practice techniques on plastic skulls. Attendees will learn to insert, setup, manage, and remove intracranial monitoring devices including ventriculostomy, intraparenchymal ICP monitors, brain tissue oxygen probes, cerebral blood flow monitors and cerebral microdialysis. The workshop will enhance the participant’s practical utilization of these intracranial tools that have the potential to guide and fine-tune therapy during neurointensive care.

Neurocritical Care Pharmacotherapy

Course Director: Aaron Cook, PharmD, FNCS
Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Expert faculty from across the country will cover new, controversial, and evidence-based pharmacotherapy strategies for the neurocritically ill in a case-based and interactive learning environment! This year’s topics include: new antimicrobials for CNS infection, rescue therapy in intracranial procedures, the ABCDEF bundle, renal function issues in neurocritical care, BP management after thrombectomy, and pharmacologic strategies to improve wakefulness and neurorecovery.  Attendees are encouraged to bring their own cases/examples to the course for discussion.

Building a Quality Improvement Program in the NICU

Course Directors: Casey Olm-Shipman, MD & Debra Roberts, MD, PhD
Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The Quality and Performance Improvement Workshop (QPIW) will provide crucial concepts necessary for NCS leaders to develop effective multidisciplinary neurocritical care QI programs within their institutions. QPIW will enhance knowledge essential to improving process and outcome measures in neurocritically ill patients. Existing guidelines and performance measures will be reviewed as a foundation for development of QI projects. With these tools in mind, we will explore the nuts-and-bolts of building a comprehensive neurocritical care QI program, which include building a multidisciplinary QI team, garnering buy-in from institutional leadership and establishing administrative support, identifying and tracking neurocritical care QI metrics, and developing infrastructure for data collection and display.

The workshop will include case illustrations of how to design and implement QI projects. We will conclude with a discussion of pathways to scholarship in QI. Course participants will receive a valuable electronic guide describing useful resources pertinent to conducting QI in neurocritical care, including QI-relevant guidelines, databases, and project development materials.

Critical Care Procedures Skills

Course Director: Katharina Busl, MD

Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Critical Care Procedures is a hands-on workshop that teaches commonly performed critical care bedside procedures including central line, arterial line, lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, chest tubes, and peripheral IVs with ultrasound guidance. Brief didactic sessions cover indications, techniques, and different devices and kits. Participants will get to practice fundamental procedural skills at instructor-led skill stations. This workshop will offer the opportunity to learn a new skill, refine the technique of an acquired skill, or practice a different approach with faculty experienced in procedures and simulation-based training.

Airway Management, Intubation and Bronchoscopy

Course Director: Kamila Vagnerova, MD
Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

This hands-on workshop teaches fundamentals of airway management and basic critical care bronchoscopy, and guides through different clinical scenarios. Brief didactic sessions cover indications, techniques, and variety of devices in case-based reviews. Participants will practice core intubation skills, including the use of airway rescue devices, at instructor-led skill stations. Simulations of various case scenarios, including difficult intubation and difficult ventilation, provide opportunity to test the expertise. Bronchoscopy stations give attendees the chance to navigate fibro optic scope and learn basic airway inspection and sampling techniques. Pick up new skills, or practice existing ones—dynamic faculty will support individualized learning.

Essentials of Neurocritical Care Certification Course

Course Director: Gene Sung, MD
Monday, September 21 at 8:00 am – 4:30 pm
Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 am – 4:45 pm

The Essentials of Neurocritical Care Certification course teaches the essential topics of neurocritical care through a combination of online course material, in-person case discussions, and hands-on workshops. Prior to the live session, participants will be given access to the online course which includes 14 required core modules with recorded lectures and examinations. Training will culminate at the live session with an intensive two days of discussions and hands-on workshops which will teach specific neurocritical care techniques.

Participants who are certified in Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) will find this course to be an excellent next step in training, as it goes beyond the first few hours of a neurologic emergency to cover pathophysiology, diagnostic studies, treatment, and transition to discharge.

After taking this course, participants will have learned the reasoning behind usual management of neurocritically ill patients and applications. In addition, there will be hands-on exposure to many of the skills used in the neurocritical care unit and discussion and case studies of how and when to use these skills. Though this exposure, participants can decide on which of these skills they wish to take in to practice. The core topics and hands-on skills are as follows:

Core Topics:

• Acute Ischemic Stroke
• Intracerebral Hemorrhage
• Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
• Seizures & Epilepsy
• Acute Neuromuscular Disorders
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
• Metabolic Encephalopathies & Delirium
• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy in Adults
• Prognostic Assessment in Neurocritical Care
• Clinical Evaluation of Coma and Brain Death
• Respiratory Support of the Neurocritically Ill
• Multimodality Neuromonitoring
• Ethics/End of Life

Workshops:

1. Airway and Ventilation Management
2. Targeted Temperature Management & Sedation
3. ICP Placement & Management
4. Multi-modality monitoring; oxygenation, perfusion, metabolism, cEEG
5. Ultrasound - Neurocritical Care
6. Neurological Exam/Scales, Imaging and Prognostication

Friday, Sept. 25

Professionalism, Leadership and Research Mentoring Session**

Friday, September 25 at 8:00 am - 1:15 pm 

This program will cover essential skills for successful career advancement in neurocritical care professions. The sessions are geared towards members of all backgrounds, professions, roles and disciplines. In particular, aspiring leaders who have not attended the course previously are encouraged to attend. Topics presented by NCS leaders will cover areas such as NCS leadership and organizational involvement, mentorship, graceful self-promotion, interview skills, negotiation, team-building, and managing conflict. In addition, topics to help advance research skills and professional advancement in the clinical and laboratory settings will be provided, along with time for direct mentoring by senior NCS researchers in interactive sessions. The session will include a networking break with NCS leadership and multiprofessional leaders in the field.

**Pre-registration is required, but there is no additional fee to attend the Professionalism, Leadership and Research Mentoring session.