Drs. Joseph Quinlan and Raymond Planinsic lead a difficult airway simulation session. (Photo by Mr. John Lutz)

In April, several Department of Anesthesiology faculty traveled to Palermo, Italy to attend the first annual Mediterranean Transplantation Anesthesiology and Simulation Symposium (MedTASS), which offered a current review of critical issues regarding standards of practice in the perioperative anesthetic and intensive care management of liver, heart and lung transplantation. MedTASS was made possible by a collaborative effort of the Department of Anesthesiology, the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research (WISER), and the Renato Fiandaca Simulation Center at the Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies (ISMETT).

Course directors for the 2.5 day Symposium were three Department of Anesthesiology faculty: Antonio Arcadipane, MD, Chief Anesthesiologist, ISMETT; Paul E. Phrampus, MD, Director, WISER; and Raymond M. Planinsic, MD, Chief of Hepatic Transplantation Anesthesiology UPMC. MedTASS included didactic sessions discussing current issues in transplantation, pro/con debates regarding difficult cases and controversies in transplantation, and several medical simulation sessions to demonstrate critical operating room scenarios encountered in transplantation surgery.  Co-Director Dr. Planinsic said, “The simulation portion of the Symposium was particularly useful and enthusiastically received by the audience.”

Keynote speakers included Bruno Gridelli, MD, Medical and Scientific Director of ISMETT. Dr. Gridelli’s address was titled “Transplantation: Past, Present, and Future.” Co-Director Dr. Paul Phrampus, also a keynote speaker, discussed the role of simulation in medical education. Dr. Phrampus later explained, “MedTASS emphasized the integration of simulation with a traditional meeting, which is usually lecture-heavy. Simulation is typically used as an add-on at a meeting, but here it was truly integrated into the curriculum.”

Co-Director Dr. Arcadipane explained the significance of the meeting to his institution; “The 2009 MedTASS meeting gave us the chance to bring together organ transplantation experts from Pittsburgh and the from the greatest Italian transplantation centers. Moreover, for the very first time in Italy, we organized a Symposium that included macro-simulation in the organ transplantation field.”