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Ken B. Johnson, MD,
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology
at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. His grant proposal
is entitled "Exploration of Partial Task and Variable Priority
Training to Improve Management of Adverse Respiratory Events: An
Enhanced Approach to Didactic and Simulation-Based Training for
Anesthesia Residents." The objective of this proposal is to
assess how enhanced didactic and simulator-based training incorporating
both part task and variable priority training will impact first-year
anesthesia residents' ability to manage life threatening adult and
pediatric respiratory events. Part task training is defined as the
break-down of large, multi-component tasks into a set of components
that can become highly automatized, reducing the processing demands.
Variable priority training is a method of teaching residents to
distribute attention over multiple aspects of a task. The study
will compare standard training for first-year anesthesia residents
with enhanced (part task and variable priority-based) training over
a twelve month period. Standard training consists of resident participation
in weekly didactic sessions (grand rounds, case conferences, chapter
reviews, and visiting professor lectures), daily hands-on training
in the operating room, and six simulation-based training sessions
throughout the year. Part task and variable priority training consists
of participation in the same activities as the control group, except
that one of the weekly didactic sessions per month will employ part
task training, and all six of the simulation-based training sessions
employ variable priority training. Each resident's performance in
managing six simulated respiratory events will be measured at the
beginning and at the end of the twelve month study period. Metrics
of comparison between training groups will include the time required
to reach diagnosis and the time required to properly treat the simulated
respiratory events.
In addition to receiving the requested funding of $65,000 for this
project, Dr Johnson is also the recipient of the inaugural "Ellison
C. Pierce, Jr. Education Award," which consists of an additional,
unrestricted grant of $5,000.
Nyamkhishig Sambuughin, PhD,
Assistant Staff Scientist of Neurology Research at the Barrow Neurological
Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix,
Arizona. Her grant proposal is entitled "Development of Molecular
Diagnosis for Malignant Hyperthermia." The objective of this
proposal is to screen an entire ryanodine type 1 receptor (RYR1)
gene using new molecular genetic technology, and eventually to establish
the complete spectrum of RYR1 mutations. The proposal is based on
the hypothesis that RYR1 mutations are dispersed throughout the
gene, causing malignant hyperthermia (MH) in 80% of affected families.
Individuals with MH are usually clinically normal, but they are
prone to life-threatening hypermetabolic crises following exposure
to inhalational anesthetics or depolarizing muscle relaxants. In
the majority of cases, MH results from a defect in the regulation
of calcium release in skeletal muscle due to mutations in the calcium-release
channel of sarcoplasmic reticulum receptor (RYR1). MH is inherited
as an autosomal dominant trait, and when MH susceptibility is diagnosed
in an individual, his or her family members are considered at risk
for the disease. Currently, MH susceptibility can only be determined
by caffeine-halothane contracture test, an invasive procedure that
is expensive, not 100% reliable, difficult to perform in children,
and only available in 8 diagnostic centers in the United States
(3 of which are closing this year due to lack of funding). The proposal
seeks to develop a molecular screening test for MH susceptibility,
based on the mutation analysis of the RYR1 gene. Genetic diagnosis
for MH susceptibility in at-risk individuals will enhance patient
safety significantly, and will be far less invasive, highly specific,
and relatively inexpensive.
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