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CAN Updates: News from the California Association of Neonatologists

Dec 7, 2020

CPQCC will now be featuring quarterly updates from the California Association of Neonatologists (CAN) in its newsletter, starting with the one below. CAN is also updating its website, so stay tuned for more details. 

For more information about CAN, please reach out to:

Cool Topics in Neonatology -27th Annual Conference

The 27th Annual CAN/AAP District IX Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Conference, Cool Topics in Neonatology, and the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC) Pre-Conference will be held virtually due to COVID restrictions on March 5-7, 2021. Robert Kahle, MD, CAN President, and the Planning Committee have put together a great agenda for the virtual conference. This year’s conference is focused on the management of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. The conference will kick off Friday evening with a keynote lecture by Dr.Annemarie Stroustrup, MD on the NICU Care in the midst of a Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on the NICU: Staff, Patient and Family Perspectives. Please visit https://www.cme.ucla.edu for more details about our conference and registration information. There will be a Virtual Poster Session on Friday, March 5th, 2021, following the keynote and presentation of the David Wirtschafter Award. There will also be a Virtual Exhibit Hall as well.

The 17th annual Life after Fellowship Workshop will be held virtually on Thursday, March 4th, 2021 as part of the annual Cool Topics in Neonatology meeting. Virtual q/a interactive sessions with faculty and trainees will be featured at this year’s workshop in addition to the lectures. Program Committee includes Rangasamy Ramanathan, Soina Dargan, Virender Rehan, Meera Sankar, Christine Bixby, and Adrian Lavery.

CAN Subcommittees

The CAN Research and Education Committee (Chair: Meera Sankar) has been meeting regularly via monthly conference calls. We had excellent faculty research presentations on pertinent topics such as antibiotic stewardship by Kurlen Payton, Coronavirus in Pregnancy Outcomes Registry (PRIORITY) study by Valerie Falerian, and hypothermia prevention QI project by Dilip Bhatt. The CAN Practice and Standards Committee (Chair: Robert Castro) has done outstanding QI work in the area of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) management. Several CA NICU’s enroll infants in the MATEX database in collaboration with CPQCC. The CAN electronic NICU Directory (Co-Chairs: Dilip Bhatt, Marian Adams, Ronald Ariagno & Henry Lee) has been launched and members are invited to review their data. Nine training centers have so far been included in the Directory.

CSCC Report

At our last CAN Board Meeting in November, CSCC lobbyist, Angela Blanchard, and Government Affairs Manager, Katie Layton, incoming CSCC President, John Cleary, and Jane Lee, Coalition Representative and CAN Liaison to the CSCC Board, provided updates. CSCC partnered with CMA and allied stakeholders and successfully opposed the budget cuts to the Proposition 56 program until April 2021 through direct advocacy with the Governor’s administration and phone meetings with key state legislators. Due to their successful efforts, funding was provided to the second cohort of loan repayment to physicians including 55 subspecialists. The Coalition continues to be a strong advocate for telehealth reimbursements for providers which has become a significant area of focus due to the pandemic. The Medi-Cal Rx program implementation has been delayed until April 2021. Providers were encouraged to register prior to that date.

AAP District 9 Report

At our last CAN Board meeting in November, D9 Chair Alexis Davis and Secretary-Treasurer, Marian Adams provided updates about SONPM activities. The NCE was held virtually in October, and the Perinatal workshop and Annual Leadership Forum will be held virtually as well. The TECaN, MidCaN and WiN groups are hosting webinars and virtual meetings on important topics such as leadership, financial planning. In addition, there is a Clinical leaders group aimed at meeting the needs of medical directors and quality leaders.