Getting Your Cath Lab Ready for 2016 and Beyond: The SCAI Cath Lab Boot Camp

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of being a cath lab director. From my time in St. Louis to The University of California-Irvine and VA Long Beach, the leadership of the cath lab involved not only attending to the required administrative paperwork, but also employing a more direct effort toward improving the functionality of the lab through daily collaboration, development of new collegial relationships, and acquiring new knowledge and skills beyond just performing high quality cath and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). I can attest from personal experience that running a cath lab is not intuitive. Balancing and negotiating the interactions of hospital administrators, local and national guidelines and policies, doctor and patient care, staff desires and needs for quality performance, documentation, and education requires a team effort. I know that one of the best resources for understanding, implementing and improving cath lab operations comes from reading Cath Lab Digest. But of course it is only one way of getting some knowledge about running a cath lab program.  

As a longstanding member and past president of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) (which, by the way, now invites and includes our technologists and nurses as part of the SCAI membership), I want to highlight a relatively recent addition to the SCAI Annual Scientific Program, the Cath Lab Boot Camp, designed to address the needs of those managing a cath lab as well as those working in the cath lab with interests in learning what it takes as they grow in their career. To share this with you, I’ve asked the SCAI 2016 Annual Scientific Program Co-Chairs, Drs. Robert Applegate from Winston-Salem and Ehtisham Mahmood from San Diego to tell us about this program.  

SCAI Cath Lab Boot Camp

The highly regarded Cath Lab Leadership Boot Camp will make an expanded return to the SCAI Scientific Sessions in May 2016. Due to overwhelming attendee interest, Boot Camp has been increased to one and a half days, taking place Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6, 2016 in Orlando, Florida.

“Since its launch in 2014, SCAI’s Cath Lab Boot Camp has really struck a chord of interest and enthusiasm, underscoring how much education and mentoring is needed for the role of cath lab leader,” said Ehtisham Mahmud, MD, FSCAI, co-chair for SCAI 2016. “As the leader for quality improvement in the cath lab both in the United States and around the world, SCAI recognized that we ought to be the ones filling this gap, and that’s what we’ve been accomplishing through Boot Camp.”

Until recently, cath lab directors, managers and other staff have had to develop the skills needed to successfully run their labs on their own, with no formal pathway and no consistent job description. “The boot camp approach really does take care of so many of the real-world, in-the-trenches interventionalists, and provide them the skills they need to manage their cath lab for optimal outcomes,” said SCAI 2016 Program Chair Roxana Mehran, MD, FSCAI. 

Each of the Boot Camp’s sessions will feature lectures and panel discussion from faculty who have filled different cath lab roles, from medical directors, to managers, to administrators. Additionally, there will be interactive moderated discussions, where attendees can share their experiences and questions. 

A particular focus and highlight of this year’s Boot Camp will be two sessions dedicated to issues of radiation safety. “We have always been aware of the environmental hazards inherent in working in the cath lab, particularly radiation exposure. Now, however, more than ever, we are aware that radiation exposure may cause serious brain injury,” stated Charles Chambers, MD, MSCAI, past president of SCAI and one of the co-founders of the Boot Camp initiative.  

“This year’s program will not only provide an in-depth look at radiation exposure and injury, but provide practical tips and tricks to help improve safety in the cath lab,” said SCAI 2016 Co-Chair and Boot Camp co-founder Robert Applegate, MD, FSCAI.  

Like last year, the Boot Camp will address challenges facing physician and non-physician cath lab leaders. The five-part program will examine an array of topics such as leadership, economics, quality outcomes, registries, research and public reporting, and ethical challenges (Table 1).

During the leadership portion of the program, attendees will delve into the role of the medical director, including personnel management in the cath lab. There will also be engaging discussions on conflict resolution and the industry perspective on cath lab relationships. 

Concerned about your cath lab budget? The economics session has you covered. For instance, participants will hear from leading experts on how to properly leverage technology assessment committees for maximum effect and learn best practices for staff training. Additionally there will be much focus on how to market your cath lab in a competitive environment. Other sessions will highlight quality outcomes, how to use American College of Cardiology-National Cardiovascular Data Registries (ACC-NCDR) for research and case-based sessions on ethical challenges.

A big part of the Boot Camp’s strength is its focus on the heart team, as reflected by the diverse expertise and perspectives to be found in both the audience and the faculty. This is reflective of how SCAI is expanding its membership to welcome the whole cath lab team, including physicians, nurses, technologists, and administrators.

Without a doubt, if you or any member of your team has an interest in becoming more involved, informed, and knowledgeable about cath lab operations, the Cath Lab Boot Camp is for you. Please take advantage of this great opportunity. Your lab will thank you for it.

More information about the Cath Lab Leadership Boot Camp at SCAI 2016 can be found at: www.scai.org/SCAI2016BootCamp. 

Disclosure: Dr. Kern reports he is a consultant and speaker for St. Jude Medical and Volcano Therapeutics, and a consultant for Opsens, ACIST Medical, Heartflow, and Merit Medical.