Neurocritical Care Has Matured and it is Time to Raise the Bar…Yet Again

Excerpt

Neurocritical care is a growing clinical discipline which has matured into a full-fledged and recognized multi-professional subspecialty of critical care medicine. We can say without a doubt that neurocritical care has gone through puberty and adolescence, and now has reached adulthood. The Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) is made up of more than 2000 members from more than 47 countries and has been promoting neurocritical care and supporting its members for over a decade [1]. The vision of NCS is to provide and advocate for the highest quality of care for patients with critical neurological illness throughout the world. NCS has been instrumental at improving professional collaboration between physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners. In addition, NCS has improved neurocritical care education by drafting multi-disciplinary guidelines of various diseases such as subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), status epilepticus, and severe acute ischemic strokes (AIS). Physician neurointensivists and neurocritical care fellowship training programs can now obtain certification and accreditation in the USA via the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties, and many national organizations, such as Leapfrog, have recognized the specialty. More recently, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) has approved board certification for physician neurointensivists [2]. This latest move by ABPN will bring neurocritical care training to the same level as any other critical care training and certification in the USA. Exciting and very welcoming news indeed. …