The Future of Neurodiagnostics: ASET 2013 Keynote Address

So, our 2013 ASET Annual Conference in Reno kicked off with our Lewis Kull Memorial Keynote Address, given by Fred Lenhoff, who is with the AMA and on the Board of Directors for the Health Professions Network.  The title of his talk was  “The Future of the Health Care Workforce in America: Is it Supercalifragilistic Neurodiagnostic?”

He is a very animated and energetic speaker, and he used a new presentation software called “Prezi” that had a lot more motion than PowerPoint.  I plan on learning to use Prezi myself since it really livens up the visuals during a presentation!  He provided a broad overview of the status of health care in America and how allied health care fits in, and how it will likely fare in the future.  Here is a link to his Prezi to view some of the facts from his talk.  Just use the forward arrow to move through the presentation.http://prezi.com/6ovfdoue7bcc/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

He actually composed two songs for this presentation.  One was a rap song and the other was sung to the tune from Mary Poppins, “Supercalifragilisticexpealidosious”.   Just for fun, I have included the lyrics here.  I will be back with more substantial content soon.  I have lots of information to share with you since the annual conference, but I am tallying conference attendee evaluations right now, I am a bit busy right now!

Rap Song:

Electro neuro diagnostic

Just saying this phrase gets me all exhausted.

Neurodiagnostics is somewhat an improvement,

but I need more than than that if I'm gonna be grooving

with this brain field, I'm a dude not a brainiac,

Do y'all electrocute peeps in the cranium? That's wack!

I ain't no maniac, don't wanna do no lobotomy,

just starting out on my work-life odyssey.

And y'all, it's odd to see a field so fertile

with a name like something from Yertle the Turtle.

Dr. Seuss could've used some of these here semantics,

but in real life it comes across a wee bit pedantic.

Don't get frantic, this field's got potential,

it may be evoked (that's a joke), see, I get mental

when I get challenged, and the brain is the real deal,

lemme close to let you know y'all got job appeal.

(My note:  He was illustrating the difficulty with terms for our profession)

And Supercalifragilistic Neurodiagnostic:

Supercalifragilistic neurodiagnostic

when you're in this field you're used to verbal acrobotics.

EEG and LTM and CPT my goodness

37 dogs and then 4 cats you've got a mess, miss! (My note: he is referring to an abstract from our program).

Anesthesia aneuyrsm epilectic seizures,

nerve conduction neurologic metabolic features

Neuro ICU and polygraphic channel overlays,

magneto encephalo graphy i'd never ix-nay

Supercalifragilistic neurodiagnostic

when you're in this field you're used to verbal acrobotics.

I'm not Mary Poppins or a vonTrapp family member,

but I got a few words that I sure hope you will remember.

We got more modalities than you could shake a stick at.

We evoke potential, we could educate a dead rat.

We're an “asset” to our doctors, they would choose no other,

our patient care is tops we treat each one just like our mothers.

Supercalifragilistic neurodiagnostic

when you're in this field you're used to verbal acrobotics.

This tune is done, I'll shut up now, but first let me assure y'all,

I'm glad we've had this time together, now it's sayanora!

Changes in Health Care and Neurodiagnostics

I am heading to the 2013 ASET Annual Conference in Reno this weekend!  It is time to put a new blog post up prior to heading to traveling.  I can’t let my readers get bored while they wait for something new to appear!  I have been thrilled with the increase in my blog readership since I started doing this a couple of years ago.  I now have over 500 readers per month, when I used to have less than 200!  The demographic statistics on my blog dashboard show that I have readers in Europe and Africa as well as in the USA.  We truly have become a global society, and hopefully a global neurodiagnostic society!

I would guess that most of my readers are not coming to Reno, so I thought I would write up an overview of a theme that has emerged in the conference program,  which may be on the minds of a lot of neurodiagnostic technologists and other allied health workers as well.

For this year’s ASET Annual Conference, our daily plenary sessions each address an aspect of health care reform and the far-reaching implications for those of us who work in the medical field.  There is always the fear of change and the unknown, fueling a sense of apprehension.  But in one form or another, we will survive as a profession.  With baby-boomers (like myself) aging, there will be more patients with neurological complications in the future.  Plus, we boomers will eventually retire from the work force, creating a shortage of skilled technologists.  So, we have to “grow” a lot of young, vital techs to take over where we leave off.  We also expect to see a trend toward more continuous monitoring of EEG in the critically ill patient population, so we will be required to cover more neuro-intensive care cases.

We have four different sessions at the conference that will help us get a handle on the future workplace for us.  The Keynote Speaker is Fred Lenhoff, who is on staff for the AMA, and is on the Board of Directors for the Health Professions Network.  He is an expert on allied health professions and trends in health care.  He will help us understand the “big picture”of health care reform.  He  will provide a comparison with our profession and other allied health specialties and how we will all fare in the future.

Our Ellen Grass Lecturer is Dr. Marc Nuwer, who has been involved on a government level as an advisor, serving on committees that set the rules for reimbursement.  He is a great advocate to have in our corner, as his specialty is IONM and ICU monitoring.  He will discuss how new legislation will affect our profession.

Our Kathleen Mears Lecturer is Sabrina Galloway, a technologist who has always had a keen interest in continuous EEG in the ICU, way before it became a recognized trend.  She also has managed services for a busy IONM company.  She will speak about how to position yourself, with credentials and education, to be a valuable member of the workforce.

And lastly:  Our Symposium:  “Doing More with Less and Reducing the Stress: Preventing Job Burn-Out” will include three panelists: a lab manager and a staff technologist will each explain their perspective and daily experience in this time of change.  The third panelist is a professional life coach, Beverly Marshall, will give us some tips on how to survive stress in the work place. 

I hope that this year’s conference program helps us develop strength in our profession as we position ourselves for the future.

See you on the other side of Reno!

Who’s Who in Neurodiagnostics: Serving as ASET Annual Conference Faculty

I have just composed a “Faculty Profile” page for the 2013 ASET Annual Conference in Reno, NV.  It was not until I could visualize a complete list of our faculty with all of the information about their expertise and experience that I saw the true impact of the information on this list.  This list reads like a “Who’s Who in Neurodiagnostics for sure!

It made me very proud to be a part of ASET and to know how many really dedicated and smart people are out there who are willing to put time and effort into coming to the ASET Annual Conference to give a presentation.

Here is  a link to the Faculty Profiles on our website, and when you read through it, please look at where each speaker hails from.   http://www.aset.org/files/public/2013_Annual_Conference_Faculty_Profile.pdf         None of these speakers are from the Reno area.  It is especially impressive when you understand that ASET does not cover travel expenses for course faculty! So all of these physicians and technologists are flying into Reno and staying at their own expense to help us deliver the highest quality education we can provide for our colleagues.  I am sure that you will agree we have lined up some fantastic speakers!

How do we select faculty?

For the annual conference, the first step is the selection of course directors.  I rely on these subject matter experts to help me determine what topics are really pertinent in each area of interest.  Once we decide what topics we would like to offer in each course, we seek the right experts to deliver the presentations.  Sometimes a course director has heard a fantastic lecture at another meeting, and often they are able to recruit physicians from their own facility to give a talk.

There are usually some “perennial favorites” who serve as faculty often, and who always get rave reviews from the audience.  But, I like to mix things up, and give a “first-time” speaker a chance.  I have found some great talent this way.  Often these folks have spoken at regional meetings and have gained the confidence to speak at a national conference.

For some, public speaking is a difficult challenge.  I have found over the years, that with each speaking engagement, the anxiety lessens and it gets easier after a while.  If you would like to serve as ASET faculty please contact me.  I will be booking our 2014 seminars and annual conference faculty as soon as this year’s annual conference is over. 

I also suggest that if you would like to acclimate to speaking for ASET, giving a short abstract presentation is the ideal way to build your skills and confidence.  The abstracts are shorter, more focused presentations, and do not require handouts.  We will be accepting abstracts for our 2014 annual conference next year, in Asheville, NC before the end of this year.   Please check the ASET website for updates.

Neurodiagnostic Learning Adventure – Alternate Reality Game

This is the third year that ASET has designed and implemented an “Alternate Reality Game”, or ARG.  This is a new trend in interactive internet use by multiple players and we are thrilled to be “on the cutting edge” of cyber-learning by offering this game for our members.  We hope it will engage our younger technologists who are very familiar with internet games and I encourage members of my “older” generation to give it a try as well.  You will feel “hip” and trendy.  Players who complete the entire game will receive an ASET ACE credit.  The clues will be revealed every 3 to 4 weeks, and will send you to research an educational destination on the internet, such as an ASET Journal or newsletter article, or a website that has something interesting about neurodiagnostics.  When you log on and answer the question after following the clue, you participation is documented.  If you get through all the clues, you will receive the ACE credit at the end of the game.

I hope that many of you are fans of Dr. Who, because this year’s game is built on this classic cult show.  Players will join Dr. “Neuro-Who” as he enters his time machine the “Nervis” (Neuro Event Re-Visitation Space-Time Continuum).  You will travel with Dr. Neuro-Who to destinations in the past and the future of neurodiagnostics, and visit distant destinations in our current time, where innovative research in neurological medicine is being conducted.

To sign up for the game, please use this link:

 http://www.aset.org/i4a/ams/amsstore/category.cfm?category_id=67   or go to our website, and shop for the ARG in our on-line store.

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!