Pioneer in Anesthesia Among Award Winners Recognized by ASRA

Guy Weinberg, MD, Creator of the LAST Protocol, Receives Gaston Labat Award

A pioneer in anesthesia will be honored by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) in honor of his significant contributions to the field, including development of a life-saving protocol and standard of care now used throughout the world.

Patients undergoing medical procedures are at risk for local anesthetic cardiac toxicity (LAST), a rare but potentially fatal side effect associated with administration of local anesthetics. The toxicity often comes on quickly with dizziness, drowsiness, and confusion, followed by central nervous system symptoms such as seizure and loss of consciousness, ultimately leading to cardiovascular failure and death.

These effects were first described as early as 1887 with the use of cocaine as a local anesthetic. Today, although drugs and delivery mechanisms have evolved, LAST remains a serious concern – mitigated by the use of a Checklist for Treatment of Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity, developed by Dr. Guy Weinberg and a team of anesthesiologists.

It was 1998 when Dr. Weinberg discovered that lipid emulsion therapy could be used to treat and even prevent LAST. He developed LipidRescue in 2006 to inform the medical community about the cardiotoxicities of local anesthetics, but since then the approach has also been found to reverse neurological toxicities associated with local anesthetics as well as cardiac toxicities associated with other agents.

ASRA published the first LAST guideline in 2010, and it has been updated twice since. The guideline has also been incorporated into an iPhone App to facilitate immediate access in the clinical setting.

Dr. Weinberg has been honored for his contributions to the development, teaching, and practice of regional anesthesia with ASRA’s 2020 Gaston Labat Award and Lectureship, which he will present at the 45^th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

“It is extremely rare for an anesthesiologist to discover an intervention that actually saves patients’ lives. Dr. Weinberg’s two-plus decade research focus on using lipid emulsion as antidote for fat soluble medication overdose has spanned both local anesthetics (regional anesthesia) and other pharmaceutics (emergency medicine and critical care medicine). The impact of his research on our sub-specialty has been enormous,” wrote Dr. Joseph M. Neal in his letter of recommendation.

Given annually, the award honors Gaston P. Labat, MD (1843-1908), a pioneer in regional anesthesia and the first president of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia founded in 1923 (later abandoned and then “re-founded” in 1975). Labat’s Regional Anesthesia: Its Technique and Clinical Application was first published in 1922 and became “wildly successful” and a quintessential resource throughout the 20^th century.

Dr. Weinberg began his career in internal medicine and medical genetics and later completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He has served as professor of anesthesiology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago since 2003 and also works at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. He received the ASRA Distinguished Service Award in 2011.

 

Dr. Joseph Neal Receives Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Joseph M. Neal has received ASRA’s 2020 Distinguished Service Award. A former president of ASRA (2012-2015) and editor-in-chief of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (2002-2012), Dr. Neal has been an active member of ASRA for many years and is widely respected in the field. He received the Gaston Labat Award and Lectureship in April 2019. Although he retired from clinical practice in 2018 at Virginia Mason Medical Center, he continues research and writing. He serves as an affiliate investigator at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason and as a clinical professor of anesthesiology at University of Washington School of Medicine.

“Dr. Neal has long established himself as an international leader in regional anesthesia,” wrote Kevin E. Vorenkamp, MD, who worked for many years with Dr. Neal at Virginia Mason Medical Center. “He has instructed hundreds of anesthesiology residents and regional anesthesia fellows …  and his presentations and publications have easily reached thousands more.”

Dr. Neal received his undergraduate and medical training at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown. He returned to Bowman Gray/Wake Forest University to complete residencies in emergency medicine and anesthesiology. After fellowship training in regional anesthesia at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, he joined that group in 1989. He directed the Virginia Mason regional anesthesia fellowship for over a decade as well as its anesthesiology residency program. He served as director of research from 2013-2017.

Dr. Neal has been a researcher on 12 grants, presented at hundreds of national and regional meetings, organized 24 meetings, authored over 74 peer-reviewed articles, and published four books on various topics in the regional anesthesia and pain medicine field.

The Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to an individual for his or her outstanding service to ASRA or to the fields of pain medicine or regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine.

 

Dr. Priyanka Ghosh Receives 2020 Resident/Fellow of the Year

Priyanka Ghosh, MD, has been awarded the 2020 Resident/Fellow of the Year Award from ASRA. Dr. Ghosh is a fellow in interventional pain medicine at Weill Cornell Tri-Institute for Pain (New York Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Cancer Center, and Hospital for Special Surgery). She is involved in research at each of these institutions in the areas of practice administration education in interventional pain medicine fellowships; osteoid osteoma diagnoses; dorsal root ganglion stimulation and dorsal column spinal cord stimulation in CRPS; and spinal cord stimulation studies. In fact, research has played a large role in her entire career as far back as when she attended Brown University as an undergrad. She earned her MD at the University of California, San Francisco, where she also served as an NIH Clinical & Translational Research Fellow. Her residency was in the department of anesthesia, critical care and pain medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School.

She is active in a number of organizations and groups in addition to ASRA, including the Society of Women Innovators in Pain Management, the World Academy of Pain Medicine Ultrasonography, and the Substance Abuse Prevention and Education Committee. She has presented posters at the North American Neuromodulation Society, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and ASRA.

ASRA’s Resident/Fellow of the Year Award is given annually to a resident or fellow member of ASRA who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to regional anesthesia or pain medicine; has contributed to the advancement of the profession, welfare of residents, or quality of residency education; serves as a role model and mentor to his or her peers; and embodies the values of ASRA.

Shalini Shah, MD, vice-chair of anesthesiology and perioperative care, chief of pain medicine, and director of pain services at the University of California, Irvine, nominated Dr. Ghosh for the award, noting her lengthy history of scholarly projects and leadership roles. Dr. Ghosh has been active in ASRA through meeting attendance; service on the Resident Section, Newsletter, and Membership committees; and work with the Women in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Special Interest Group. 

“Her aim is to continue to advance diversity, in partnership with ASRA, including the increased recruitment of women in the field of pain medicine,” Dr. Shah wrote.

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