Planning the course tracks for the ASET 2013 Annual Conference in Reno

Have you ever wondered how we decide what course tracks should be included in our annual conference program?  And how we decide when each course should be placed on the schedule?

It is rather like putting a puzzle together.

First, I take into consideration all the comments from attendee evaluations from the last annual conference.  There are many helpful comments about what would be of interest for future programs.  I also tally how many people attend each lecture, based on which lectures each attendee evaluated.  So, I can easily see a pattern of “hot topics” and ones that are not as popular.

I also try to offer some variety from year to year without skipping our perennial favorites.  Additionally, I make special note of ABRET oral exams, if they are being held the weekend of the conference, in the city in which we are holding the conference.  This means that there will be lots of anxious exam candidates in town, who would appreciate a day of EEG topics prior to sitting for the exam.  It also means that there will be many highly qualified technologists and neurologists coming into town to serve as examiners who can also give great presentations on a variety of topics!  Because of ABRET guidelines, examiners cannot give lectures pertaining to Board Prep topics, but there are many other areas of interest to be covered.

There are several courses which include hands-on workshops, as they are the most effective way to learn a new procedure.  Nerve conduction, Evoked Potentials and Trans-cranial Doppler are three examples where “hands-on” is a must.  These courses must be scheduled on days when our vendors are on-site in our exhibit hall, so that they may provide the equipment we use in these workshops.

So, what is happening in Reno?  I have just put the master schedule together.  I hope that you are looking forward to the program, and I encourage your comments, suggestions and questions at any time.  I begin serious planning of content in early December.  Here is the plan:

Daily Plenary Session as the first event and Platform Presentations throughout each day, plus:  

       

Thursday, Aug. 1

Evoked Potentials
LTM/Epilepsy

Pediatric Neurodiagnostics

 Friday, Aug. 2
EEG

NCS

Trends in IONM

Saturday, Aug. 3

ICU Monitoring
Advanced IONM

1/2 Day CPT Coding Workshop
1/2 Day Professional Development

                                                                                          

You’ve probably noticed some new offerings!  The Pediatric Course is in response to multiple requests on the attendee evaluations from St. Paul.  Since I worked at Children’s Hospital in Boston, this is an area that is dear to my heart, and our smallest patients require specialized care and disease states and diagnostic procedures can be unique to this age group. 

We are also trying something a bit different with two half-day courses on Saturday.  We are fortunate to have access to a very savvy billing expert.  With all the changes in billing and coding that will come with the Affordable Health Care Act, we need to delve deeply into the topic of CPT coding.  This expert did a short workshop in St. Paul and the overwhelming majority of comments were that the program was not long enough to address the topic.  So, this year we will provide adequate time for a customized learning experience, where participants can bring in case studies and questions related to reimbursement.

Because it was so successful last year, we will once again offer a daily plenary session, for all conference attendees, followed by short platform presentations on a variety of topics.

The abstract application form is on our website now, at the “Meetings” tab, plus “Annual Conference”.  We need abstracts!  You will receive free registration on the day you present your abstract, so it is worth doing this!  We also have poster abstracts, and you may apply to present in either format. 

See you in Reno, August1-3, 2013!

                                                           
                                   

Mentoring and Learning

Were you fortunate enough to have a mentor somewhere along your career path?  I find that within neurodiagnostic technology, mentoring is a great way to help give a boost to someone who is trying to prepare for a Board Exam or learn a new modality.  Many technologists work in rural areas or in a one-person lab and they feel isolated and alone and have no one to go to with questions.  I get those kind of calls every day!  ASET used to have a formal mentor program to try to connect those who needed to learn, with those willing to coach.  Although we do not formally offer this program any more, I do try to find help for people who really need it.  You might wonder why the mentor program was dropped.  I found that it was extremely difficult to find a qualified person to serve as a mentor for a specific tech who needed help, mostly due to the geographic challenges.  The techs wanted mentors they could visit in person, and that was next to impossible to find.

I had a very special mentor, early in life who inspired me and gave me confidence, my grandmother, whom I called “Nana”.  She was born in Eastport, Maine in 1898, one of seven children in a fairly poor family.  But she really could cook!  Most of the time she did so without a written recipe.   She taught me how to cook at a very early age.  I remember being small enough, maybe six or seven, when I stood on a stool in front of the stove while she made a fish chowder.  She showed me how it should look, and when to add ingredients.  I have made chowders ever since, fish and clam chowders that get rave reviews from guests.  So, I decided to enter a Chowder Competition here in Boothbay.  I was competing with about 20 restaurant chefs.  I did O.K. and had loads of fun but did not win, place or show.  But I learned a lot that I can use when I try again next year.  Here is a picture of me as “Fish Chowder Faye”.

  On a sad note, this historic ship, the Bounty, a replica used for the movie and for other films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, was being repaired at the shipyard where the chowderfest took place in Boothbay Harbor and I took this picture. 

This ship just left Maine and sailed South, and was lost at sea off of Cape Hatteras, due to Hurricane Sandy.  Most of the crew were rescued, two are lost.

Back to the mentoring:  You too have important skills and knowledge that you can share with others.  Please reach out to techs that you know and offer to help them prepare for exams or learn new skills, from IONM to lab management!  Your contribution will help build our profession and our work force.  My next entry will include more about lab management, as I have questions for all of you pertaining to your needs in this area.

What is up in 2013? EEG, LTM and ICU Monitoring and Nerve Conduction Educational Schedule

I am packing my bags for Phoenix this week, to manage the ASET Fall Seminar Courses, and our local host is the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.  We will be offering two courses concurrently:  “Essentials and Updates in EEG Technology” and “Advanced LTM and ICU Monitoring”.   We have 16 staff nurses from the Phoenix area who are planning to attend our LTM/ICU course.  It is nice to know that we have the respect of the medical community as the experts on continuous EEG monitoring!  Our EEG course is designed to cover all the subjects that you can expect to find in the ABRET part I and part II exams.  People have asked if the content of the ABRET EEG exam will change when the oral exam is phased out in 2013.  ABRET has reassured us that the content will be the same, only the way the exam is given will be changing.

I thought my readers might like to know what the ASET Educational Calendar will be for 2013.  I have just finalized the 2013 ASET Spring and Fall Seminar dates and locations.   ASET has also been invited to host a one day course at the 2013 American Epilepsy Society annual conference in Washington D.C.!  This is a first for us!  The content will cover all technical aspects of LTM and ICU monitoring, and our expected audience will include physicians and nurses, as well as technologists.

 So, please mark your calendars and try to attend one of these great events!

2013 ASET Spring Seminar Courses:  April 6-7, at the Mayo Clinic Campus
in Jacksonville, FL
Excelling in EEG (2 days)
Comprehensive LTM and ICU Monitoring (2 days)

2013 ASET Annual Conference:  Aug. 1-3, at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, NV (3 days)

2013 ASET Fall Seminar Courses, Oct. 5-6, Indiana University Campus, Neuroscience Center,
 Indianapolis, IN
Excelling in EEG (2 days)
NCS Learning Lab (2 days)
ICU Monitoring and Neurotelemetry (Oct 5^th only)

ASET Course at the AES conference in Washington D.C., Sunday, Dec. 8^th
Technical Aspects of LTM and ICU Monitoring

Please note:  I will be out of my office from Wed. Oct. 3 through Mon. Oct. 8th for my trip to Phoenix.  Looking forward to revisiting summer!  It has been 40 degr

degrees here at night, 60 degrees during the day, and now I will get to experience 100 degree heat!

So what is the “Synapse Bowl”?

I will be on vacation for a while after today, so I wanted to post something in my blog before I sign off for a week and a half.  But, because I am looking forward to time off, I am in a light-hearted mood, so cannot come up with a really serious educational topic, so how about something fun!!

I thought you all might like to know what the “Synapse Bowl” is! You may have seen this announced in our annual conference brochure.  For the past two years, we have run this as the closing event of the meeting.

Here is a picture of one of the teams, and one of the “game show” hosts, our own Board of Trustees member, Scott Blodgett, seen here as “Vanna White”.  The team is from the Central Society, and you can see the team name is “The Central Nerdy System”.  By the way, they won the completion this year.

This is a college-bowl type competition, with Jeopardy style questions.  Teams of four compete, two at a time.  Question categories are related to neurodiagnostics:  “I See You”, Polly Somm, E.P. Call Home, and the like.  Judge Judy (our current ASET president) presides and determines if a questionable answer is correct.

After tallying all the participant evaluations for the annual conference in St. Paul, I can say that this event got rave reviews!  This event awards ACE credits and provides a comprehensive review of many topics.

We’ll be looking for teams for next year, so please be thinking about this!  There is lots of fun and laughter and learning!

You can have fun learning!

I have been back from running the ASET 2012 Annual Conference in St. Paul for a couple of weeks, but have not had time to update my blog in a while.

I am still riding the wave of energy created by the wonderful experience.  There was lots of hands-on learning and lots of positive energy!

We tried a new three-day meeting format, dropping the Wed. afternoon session from years past.  We managed to pack everything into three days, and it seems like attendees gave us a “thumbs up” on this new program schedule!  So, we’ll be continuing on with this next year for the 2013 Annual Conference in Reno.

At this conference, we seemed to capitalize on “hands-on” interactive workshops and learning!  This picture is from the IONM Minimally Invasive Sundown Seminar.  You might call it “You are the surgeon”!  There was a simulated model of an open spine surgery with a full array of surgical instruments.  Techs were able to see and feel what the surgeon feels as the spine is manipulated. (Special Thanks to Medtronic for putting this together!)

We also had a great ICU EEG Trending Workshop!  Every participant with a laptop received a flash drive with trending software worked along with the instructor to trend EEG patterns.  (Special Thanks to Persyst for providing this workshop!)

In other sessions, techs were trying out Trans-cranial Doppler, NCS and all three modalities of Evoked Potentials.

All this and we still had time for the opening reception in the exhibit hall and a great Saturday night riverboat cruise with our own ASET band, “The Dendrites!”

Over the next two weeks, I will be tallying the attendee evaluations from St. Paul.  I  will use the feedback from the comments to help me plan content for next year.  I rely on feedback to ensure that the annual conference program has meaningful learning experiences for our members.

Thanks to all of you who attended the conference in St. Paul!  It was great to see all those smiling faces and I hope to see you all next year in Reno!