Madalina Macrea

What better way to greet the day during ATS 2013 than by attending a Sunrise Seminar and enjoying a continental breakfast? Attendees will have a chance to choose from 50 Sunrise Seminars, which run a gamut of issues facing specialists in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, and are offered from 7 to 8 a.m. Monday, May 20; Tuesday, May 21; and Wednesday, May 22.

These popular sessions fill up quickly, and pre-registration is required. The registration fee, which includes continental breakfast, is $65.

One of the Monday seminars, “The Art of Prognostication: Understanding the Impact of Comorbidities on Patient Outcome,” will give attendees an understanding of just what the session title notes—practicing the art of prognostication.

“Prognostication is a skill yet to be developed and incorporated into our medical practices,” said presenter Madalina Macrea, MD, MPH, PhD, who is on staff in pulmonary, critical care, and palliative medicine at Salem (Va.) Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville. “It is a much-needed skill, especially in the ICU setting where the final outcome is dictated by the extent of comorbidities rather than an ‘individual’ admission diagnosis.”

Diana E. Hart

Dr. Macrea’s goal is to help participants become familiar with current mathematically derived prognostication models and acquire skills that build confidence.

Prognostication skills provide improved patient outcomes, Dr. Macrea explained. “They also result in a better quality of life for those whose comorbidities are significant and where a poor prognosis is expected,” Dr. Macrea said. “Use of these skills also will redistribute health care costs and improve provider satisfaction and overall medical knowledge.”

A Sunrise Seminar on Tuesday, “Non-Invasive Bi-Level Ventilation: The Practical Side,” will address the differences between continuous positive airway pressure and bi-level ventilation, and when each should be used in acute and non-acute settings.

Along with providing a primer on the terminology, co-presenters Diana E. Hart, MN, NP, nurse practitioner in respiratory at Middlemore Hospital, Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand, and Margaret-Ann Carno, PhD, RN, PNP, associate professor of clinical nursing at the University of Rochester (Minn.) School of Nursing, will emphasize how to apply and troubleshoot problems with patient interfaces.

“The seminar will benefit physicians who are new to this therapy or those who want to learn the practical aspects, and to nurses and physical therapists working with non-invasive ventilation patients,” said Ms. Hart, adding that the seminar will address both adult and pediatric concerns.

Sunrise Seminars
Monday, May 20

• SS101 Gender Differences in Asthma
• SS102 Mass Critical Care: Preparing Your ICU
• SS103 Advances in Lung Transplant
• SS104 Caring for the Critical Illness Survivor
• SS105 Advances in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
• SS106 Clinical and Research Implications of COPD as a Systemic Disease
• SS107 The Role of GERD in Rheumatologic and Non-Rheumatologic ILD
• SS108 The Art of Prognostication: Understanding the Impact of Comorbidities on Patient Outcome
• SS109 Should Every Institution Develop a Low Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening Program?
• SS110 Clinical Evaluation of Patients With Interstitial Lung Disease
• SS111 Acute Kidney Injury and Renal Replacement Therapy: What’s New for Intensivists
• SS112 Real-World Spirometry: Avoiding Technical Pitfalls and Choosing an Interpretation Algorithm
• SS113 Pulmonary Hypertension in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
• SS114 Applying Pulmonary Rehabilitation Concepts Across the Continuum from ICU to the Outpatient
• SS115 Altered Epigenetic Patterns in Pulmonary Fibrosis
• SS116 Small Airway Measurements from Toddler to Old Age
• SS117 Sleep Disordered Breathing in Pregnancy

Tuesday, May 21

• SS201 Role of the Upper Airway in the Generation of Inflammation in Asthma
• SS202 Diagnosis and Management of Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage
• SS203 Pulmonary Vascular Disease In COPD: Risks, Imaging, and Management Strategies
• SS204 Diagnosis and Management of Malignant Pleural Effusions
• SS205 Essentials of Lung Transplant
• SS206 An Evidence-Based Approach to IPF
• SS207 Critical Care Recovery Center: An Innovative Collaborative Care Model for ICU Survivors
• SS208 New Occupational Causes of Diffuse Parenchymal Lung Diseases: How to Identify a Sentinel Case
• SS209 Nematodes, Flatworms, and Flukes Oh My! A Review of Parasitic Lung Diseases
• SS210 Non-Invasive Bi-Level Ventilation: The Practical Side
• SS211 MRSA in Cystic Fibrosis: Impact and Treatment Options
• SS212 Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary Embolism in Pregnancy
• SS213 Protein Misfolding and ER Stress in Chronic Lung Disease
• SS214 Cell and Matrix-Derived Mechanotransduction in Lung Fibrosis
• SS215 Asthma Control in Obese Adults: Understanding the Physiology to Guide Treatment
• SS216 Inpatient Management of Sleep Apnea

Wednesday, May 22

• SS301 Temperature Modulation in the ICU: Can it Prevent More Injury?
• SS302 Making Cents of the Cost Effectiveness Literature
• SS303 A Case-Based Approach to Radiographic Patterns in ILD
• SS304 Managing the Patient With Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension
• SS305 Bronchial Thermoplasty for Severe Asthma
• SS306 The Unexplained Chronic Cough Explained
• SS307 How to Establish a Medical Pleuroscopy Program
• SS308 The Time Is Now: Bronchoscopic Lung Volume Reduction
• SS309 Lung Cancer Screening
• SS310 Implementation of a Nighttime Intensivist Model: Practical Tips From One Institution’s Experience
• SS311 Geographic and Socially Patterned Determinants of Obstructive Lung Disease
• SS312 TB Immunodiagnostics
• SS313 Age and Risk of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Kids Aren’t Little Adults
• SS314 Managing the Right Ventricle in Critical Illness
• SS315 MicroRNAs and Lung Disease
• SS316 Pathophysiology and Monitoring of Respiratory Muscle Dysfunction in the ICU
• SS317 Sleep Disordered Breathing and Diabetes: What’s the Real Evidence?

For more information about the topic presenters, refer to the ATS 2013 Advance Program.