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Introduction

1998; Elsevier BV; Volume: 66; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0003-4975(98)00812-1

1552-6259

John M. Murkin, David A. Stump,

Health and Medical Research Impacts

This year the Outcomes ’98 meeting was held at the Casa Marina resort in Key West, Florida, from May 27 through May 31, 1998. There were more than 150 registrants from research and clinical sites throughout the United States, as well as research and clinical teams from Canada, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. Like at the initial meeting last year, we were pleased by the multidisciplinary nature of the registrants. These included cardiac and vascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, perfusionists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, cardiologists, nurses, and psychometrists. In many cases these individuals represented several members of the same research team at a given site, such shared learning experiences being thought to be an important factor in enhancing each research team’s efforts and collaborations. In addition to state-of-the-art lectures and clinical updates from several leading research medical centers including Duke, Wake Forest, Johns Hopkins, and the Boston Pediatrics Cardiac Surgical group at Mass General, another unique feature of Outcomes ’98 was the opportunity to join invitational focus group luncheons and breakfast meetings. These industry-sponsored events included scientists and phase I project development specialists representing various pharmaceutical, biotechnological, physiological monitoring, and information technology industries. Many of those registrants who participated in these informal dialogues thought them to be a potentially important link in recruiting and developing industry-based research contracts and funding. As well, there were invited representatives from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, with Peter Rheinstein and Susan Czajkowski delivering Food and Drug Administration regulatory and National Institutes of Health funding Perspectives Lectures during a session on Sunday morning chaired by Jay Moskowitz. This session was specifically geared toward the types of research efforts and clinical outcomes that are highlighted at this meeting. Given this mix of expert clinicians and scientists, as well as the high levels of attendance from the various researchers, technicians, and industry representatives (a remarkably high level of attendance was seen at all the sessions throughout the duration of the meeting—a tribute to the Program Committee), the interest level at the various lectures, discussions, and question and answer sessions was very strong. Audience participation was similarly very high, and interaction and discussion was facilitated and actively promoted. The seven separate Poster/Discussion sessions were arranged topically and were structured to stimulate discussion from both the session Chairs and the audience. By restricting the presentor to 3 minutes and three slides with which to best characterize the themes and implications of their scientific work, we reserved a full 7 minutes for audience questions and a discussion of each presentation by the whole audience. The relaxed yet insightful nature of the questioning, given the depth of knowledge and range of disciplines represented by the audience, was thought by many of the presentors to provide invaluable feedback and assistance both in interpreting their current work as well as in stimulating ideas for further studies. The panels and debates, and the issues and questions raised during the expert lectures and scientific sessions, were stimulating and well received. The various opinions generated were both strongly held and vigorously debated—in the lecture hall as well as at beachside—but always in a collegial and informal way melded by the Caribbean climate and the resort locale favoring Key West. Most registrants thought the program was very successful and nearly all thought they came away from the meeting having gained new insights into issues relating to neurobehavioral outcomes, physiologic monitoring, and cerebroprotective strategies. Overall, the atmosphere at all the various sessions was one of relaxed and friendly camaraderie, a feeling made all the more congenial by the Friday night luau and the snorkel and dive excursions on Saturday afternoon. One notable feature at the luau was the presentation of the Golden Stump Award for what was deemed as the most influential paper on an Outcomes related topic. This year’s award was in recognition for the work of Richard Jonas and colleagues at Children’s Hospital Boston, who have published a seminal work on the effects of pH management on outcomes in children undergoing deep hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with circulatory arrest. For this year’s Proceedings as published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, we have once again used a format similar to that which we used in our inaugural publication last year (Ann Thorac Surg 1997;64:898–926). The 29 abstracts published herein were selected from those blinded papers scoring highest as graded by the independent members of the Scientific Advisory panel. A synopsis of certain of the highlights from this aspect of the scientific program precedes this section in the Proceedings. The Point-Counterpoint debate involving Cary Akins and Robert Johnson considered the critical clinical question of the optimal timing and sequencing of surgical repair for patients presenting with combined coronary and carotid disease. This debate is a popular feature of the Outcomes meetings and was once again ably chaired by John Hammon, despite his somewhat precipitous recruitment at the last minute. Written materials from the Point-Counterpoint debate as well as from the Policy Forum are also published here. The generous and unstinting support of Stan Horton of Bayer Pharmaceuticals in providing an unrestricted educational grant to help support both the Outcomes meeting and the publication of these Proceedings is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of all those individuals without whose support none of this would have been possible. We are very grateful to the Editor of The Annals, Dr Tom Ferguson, for supporting our efforts to publish these Proceedings in this esteemed journal and in such a timely fashion, and also to the editorial staff, particularly Carol Blasberg, for her invaluable assistance in the actual layout and assembly of this material. The efforts of our own staff at both Wake Forest University Medical School and London Health Sciences Centre were prodigious and largely unsung. Ultimately, the thanks for the overall success of this Outcomes meeting, as well as for the scientific papers and overviews published in these Proceedings, must go to all those participants, registrants, lecturers, and staff who contributed so much to the success of this year’s program. Thanks to you all. We hope to see you at Outcomes ’99 next year, May 26 to 30, 1999. We gratefully acknowledge an unrestricted Educational Grant provided by Bayer Pharmaceutical to support the publication of the Proceedings in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. We also gratefully acknowledge the conference’s major supporters: Bayer Pharmaceutical Medtronic Bio-Medicus Sangtec Medical AB Somanetics Corporation We wish to acknowledge the following people for contributing to the success of the Outcomes ‘98 meeting: Sandy Adams Bruce Cusson Dr Steven Dain Eric J. Heyer H. Rosie Hilbawi Stan Horton Peter Lok Carole Malcolmson Janeen Manuel Peggy Rachels Gary W. Roach Dr Kashemi Rorie J. Clifton Thompson Jason Vernon