Our 2022 Mediterranean Transplantation Anesthesiology and Simulation Symposium (MedTASS) recently concluded in Palermo, Sicily. The meeting, conceived by course directors Antonio Arcadipane, MD, (Chief of Anesthesiology and Director of OR Services at IsMeTT, UPMC’s hospital in Palermo) and Raymond M. Planinsic, MD, FASA, (Professor and Chief of Transplantation Anesthesiology, UPMC Presbyterian) was first held in 2009. The event continues to unite local, national, and international experts who present up-to-date reviews of current standards of practice in the perioperative anesthetic and intensive care management of solid organ transplantation and other major abdominal and thoracic surgeries. A MedTASS meeting had been planned for 2021 but was postponed until this year due to the COVID pandemic.
Along with IsMeTT faculty, visiting faculty from Pittsburgh included Aman Mahajan, MD, PhD, MBA, who presented the keynote address, “The Future of Anesthesiology Practice”; David G. Metro, MD, FASA; Shawn T. Beaman, MD; and Ezeldeen Abuelkasem, MBBCh, MSc.
The meeting took place at the beautiful Hotel NH in Palermo between April 29-30, 2022. In addition to presentations from distinguished faculty, unique to this conference was the use of medical simulation to teach and demonstrate critical scenarios encountered in the operating room and intensive care unit in daily practice.
During the meeting, Drs. Arcadipane and Planinsic presented the IsMeTT Clinical Innovation and Teaching Excellence Awards. The award was created in 2019 by Mark E. Hudson, MD, MBA, in collaboration with Dr. Arcadipane to foster closer ties and collaboration between our anesthesiology divisions at IsMeTT and sites in Western Pennsylvania. The annual award recognizes an IsMeTT anesthesiology faculty member who excels in clinical innovation or teaching excellence. The associated educational grant provides monetary support to the selected faculty member to attend a major educational meeting in the United States along with a clinical or educational leadership observership with us in Pittsburgh. Matteo Rosetti, MD, was the 2022 winner; past award recipients are Gennaro Martucci, MD, PhD, in 2020 and Eleonora Bonicolini, MD, in 2021.