Scholarships for Neurodiagnostic Technologists to attend the 2013 ASET Annual Conference in Reno!

Greetings Readers!

I can't believe a month has gone by since I last posted an entry!   I spent the time preparing for the ASET Spring Seminar in Jacksonville, FL, and traveling there to manage the seminar.  I will tell you more about it in my next blog entry but for right now, it is urgent that I remind you of the ASET scholarships available for or next annual conference since the deadline for applying is coming right up!

The ASET Foundation has quite a few scholarships available for the ASET 2013 Annual Conference!  Up to fourteen will be awarded to ASET members who apply.  The deadline for applications is coming right up, on May 1!  So you have less than two weeks to apply!

There are several types of scholarships.  The standard ASET scholarship covers the registration fee for the three day conference, a $500 value!  We also have a variety of corporate sponsored scholarships, some covering the registration costs and others which include a cash stipend to help with travel expenses.

To find the scholarships, please visit the ASET Foundation website:  http://www.asetfoundation.org/

Click on the “downloads”  http://www.asetfoundation.org/downloads/ tab to download the scholarship application forms.

There will be a great variety of lecture topics offered in Reno, and there is a theme throughout the conference about the changes in our jobs with the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act.  We have course tracks in EEG, IONM, LTM, ICU Monitoring, NCS and Evoked Potentials and others, as well as three days of abstract presentations to keep you current on new trends in neurodiagnostics.

With a room rate of $105 per night, and a resort setting with multiple restaurants and pools on site, it is an appealing destination!  Lake Tahoe is close by, so bring the family and enjoy the setting!

Pediatric Neurodiagnostics Highlighted

For the first time ever at an ASET annual conference, there will be a course day devoted to pediatric neurodiagnostics.  I feel like I went out on a limb a bit when I added this to the program, but I also thought that it is time to do something a bit different!  Quite a few of the attendee evaluations  from our 2012 annual conference in St. Paul expressed an interest in seeing more pediatric topics on the program, so I decided to take the leap this year.

For those of you who know me, you may recall that I specialized in pediatric neurodiagnostics myself, for most of my career.  I worked with Lew Kull at Children’s Hospital in Boston for fourteen years, before becoming Director of Education for ASET.  In that role, I just loved being in daily contact with children.  I think that pediatric EEG is much more interesting because of the wide variety of normal and abnormal findings, and the special challenge of getting a child through the test.  Neonatal EEG is my absolute favorite!  To see a tiny, premature infant, perfectly formed, and to watch the brain mature as EEG patterns change every two weeks, always amazed me.  I could sit in the NICU or nursery for hours recording infants and watching the flurry of activity around me, as the nurses and docs took care of their tiny patients.   I was able to put all of my creative energy into writing the  ASET on-line course on pediatric and neonatal EEG, and really enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm.   From the archives, here is a picture of me from 1982, as I recorded a normal control BAER on a pedi patient at Memorial Hospital in Worcester, MA.  This accompanied an article in the Worcester Telegram about the new testing equipment purchased by the hospital.  (Do you recognize this spiffy new piece of equipment from 1982?)

I am thrilled about having this pedi day on our program!  One of the highlights of the day will be a special workshop, presented by the neuro team from the Kreuger Kennedy Institute on how to get challenging pediatric patients, such as the developmentally delayed child, through the process of neurodiagnostic testing.  The Kreuger Institute is a medical facility in Baltimore which is dedicated to the care of children with developmental disabilities.  Their neuro team has developed a “desensitization” program to help a child cope with the process of getting set up for an EEG or PSG.  This workshop will be interactive and very informative. 

For any techs out there who are working with pediatric and neonatal patients, I hope to see you in Reno at our pediatric course.  I would like to see such great support for this subject that I can offer a similar course at our conferences in years to come.

The Pediatric Neurodiagnostic Course will be on Thursday, August 1.  A full course schedule for the course tracks in Reno will be posted shortly. See below for a list of topics that will be offered in the Pedi NDT course.   See you in Reno!  The annual conference registration form is on the ASET website at the "meetings" tab, and the room rate is a really low $105 per night!
Pedi NDT Day Course will include presentations on:
Childhood Epileptic Syndromes _ Dr. Michael Quach, Texas Children's Hospital
What else can it be? Non-epileptic entities seen in Childhood _ Dr. J. Riviello, NYU Med Center
Update on Neonatal EEG _ Dr. Eli Mizrahi, Texas Children's Hospital
Monitoring Pediatric Seizures - Sharon Liner, R.EEG T.
Interactive Workshop: Preparing the Challenging Pediatric Patient for NDT testing - experts from the Kreuger Kennedy Instititute

Neurodiagnostic Continuing Education Comes to Florida

The ASET Spring Seminar Courses will be coming to the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville Campus on April 6-7, 2013.  We will be offering an intermediate EEG course, appropriate for preparing for the ABRET registry exam, and a concurrent course, a bit more advanced on LTM and ICU monitoring.  This course is appropriate for preparing for the CLTM exam or to gain an understanding of the full epilepsy surgery workup, if your lab is expanding to comprehensive epilepsy treatment.

We got a great deal on a block of hotel rooms, right on the Mayo campus, at $75 per night!  Please note that this room block expires on March 4, so if you are planning on attending, I suggest you reserve your room ASAP!

It is also important to note that the “Early Bird” registration rates are good only through March 6.  After that the rates go up.  We have such a wonderful line-up of faculty for both courses!   Many of the neurologists and epileptologists from the Mayo Clinic and the nearby University of Florida have agreed to give presentations.  And you can’t beat the location, after we have all taken a beating from winter this year!

Here is the link to the course registration and hotel information for the ASET Spring Seminars in Jacksonville:  http://www.aset.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3441

 http://www.aset.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3445

You can also view the EEG and LTM/ICU course schedules from that link.

I just returned from my own continuing education event in Florida.  I attended the Annual Conference of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS) in Miami.  It was wonderful to spend three days in the warm weather, especially since I missed the blizzard that dropped 30 inches of snow here in Maine!

The ACNS program was great!  It gives me the opportunity to hear about the latest trends and research in neurology and neurophysiology, so that I can in turn, plan up-to-date programs for our educational events for technologists.  The ACNS has been so respectful and supportive of technologists and they acknowledge our importance as part of the “Neuro” team.  The outgoing ACNS president, Dr. Susan Herman, gave a wonderful Presidential Lecture on the topic “Continuous EEG Monitoring in the ICU: Defining a New Standard of Care”.  She referred to the technologist’s potential role to be a “First Responder” recognizing critical changes in the EEG and alerting the team when intervention becomes urgent.

I hope to see you in sunny Florida in April!

Abstracts needed on Neurodiagnostic Topics for ASET 2013 Conference in Reno

FAQ’s about ASET abstracts:

Q: What is the value of presenting an abstract at the ASET Annual Conference?

A:  There are many benefits.  First, let’s address the financial benefit:  it gets you free meeting registration for the day on which you present your abstract.  It also looks good on your resume or C.V.  It also gets you officially “published” since the abstracts are printed in the December issue of the ASET Journal which is listed with the medical search engine, PubMed.  You will gain recognition and confidence.

Q: What kind of presentations can I do?
A:  You have a choice of platform or poster presentation.  The platform presentation is a podium presentation and you will have about 25 minutes to explain your topic, leaving a few minutes for questions. For a poster presentation, you will need to present your topic visually on a poster that is 4’X6’.  We ask poster presenters to put their posters up at a specific time, and be present with their posters during poster breaks to explain the poster to attendees who are interested in the topic.

Q: How do I request time or space to present an abstract?
A: There is an abstract application form on the ASET website, please just go to the “meetings” tab + annual conference + abstract and poster presentations + Download 2013 Abstract Application.  Please also note that you can access tips on how to do prepare a poster or podium abstract presentation.
In addition to the application form, you must also submit the 100-200 word synopsis of your abstract subject matter.  This is what will be published in the ASET Journal and printed in the final program for the annual conference.

Q:  When will I find out if my abstract is accepted? 
A:  The deadline for abstract submission is March 15^th.  The 2013 Program Committee will review all abstract applications soon after that date.  Within a month of the deadline I will contact everyone who submitted an abstract.  I will schedule a time for each podium abstract presentation at that time, and will include that in my notice to you.  You do not have to prepare a handout for an abstract, or submit the slides in advance.

Please consider submitting an abstract!  If you have any questions, please contact me directly at faye@aset.org

See you in Reno!

Concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury: An Update

In recent years, the medical community has begun to realize that there are significant long-term consequences to concussions.  There have been some high profile sports figures who suffered symptoms as a result of repeated trauma to the head, now widely recognized as a syndrome:  Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  Last May, the suicide of the NFL player, Junior Seau made the headlines.  Just last week, there was a news release about the findings of his brain on autopsy.  His brain was given to the National Institute of Health for research, and the team that examined his brain found evidence on a cellular level, that he had CTE.  One of the key features of this syndrome is depression, contributing to suicidal ideation.  This condition cannot be diagnosed until after death, when the brain structure can be examined microscopically.  On Wednesday, Jan. 16^th, ASET  hosted a webinar on the topic of concussion, which will now be available for purchase as a recording via the ASET website.  I was fortunate to be in attendance at the New England Society of END Technologists meeting last October, and I heard this speaker give her presentation on this topic.  Dr. Janet Kent is a highly respected expert on concussion and head injury in sports, and directs the Concussion Management Clinic at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, MA.    Her talk includes information about exactly what happens inside the brain at the time of the impact, and progressive changes to brain structure on a cellular level.   Did you know that the MRI does not show abnormalities in this condition, but that the EEG may be a better predictor of injury?  As a member of the neurodiagnostic team, it is important to stay up to date on neurological care as you may be the person who takes a history from a patient, prior to doing an EEG, and you might be the one to think about the possibility of this syndrome, as a cause for symptoms.

If you are a parent, or a grandparent, or have young folks whom you care about who are active in sports, it will be really important for you to listen to this update.  Dr. Kent speaks about prevention and treatment for school sports injuries.  This happens not only in football!  For girls, head injuries may occur during cheerleading or gymnastics!    The webinar awards 1 ASET ACE credit and costs $89 for ASET members.