Neurocritical Care Society
The Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) is an international, multidisciplinary medical society first established in 1999. The Society is dedicated to improving the care and outcomes of patients with life-threatening neurologic illnesses in the intensive care unit. Common illnesses requiring neurocritical care include ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, coma, and status epilepticus. Its members are health professionals providing care to critically ill and injured patients. The Society supports research and education, and advocates on issues related to neurointensive care, neurocritical care, and general critical care.
The society's headquarters is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. Although a great percentage of the members are healthcare practitioners in the USA, the society is international and includes members from multiple healthcare disciplines all over the world
History of NCS The Neurocritical Care Society was formed in 2002 with Dr. Thomas P. Bleck as the founding president. The society’s first annual meeting was held in Phoenix, AZ in February 2003, and it has expanded to a current membership in excess of 1000 members. NCS is an interdisciplinary society, with membership roles spanning multiple physician disciplines, nursing, advanced practice providers, pharmacists and other allied health providers who specialize in the care of patients with severe neurological illness. In the early years, the path to physician board certification in neurocritical care often involved dual residency training in neurology as well as internal medicine because critical care experience was not available to neurology residents. Fellowship training in neurocritical care now constitutes a minimum of 2 years with focused training in general critical care and neurologic critical care. Neurocritical care as a subspecialty was accepted in the USA by the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS) in 2006. The first neurocritical care board examination was held in 2007, and currently there are over a 1000 certified diplomates.
Conferences The first annual conference was held in Phoenix, AZ in 2003 and has continued annually since then. The 14th conference was in Washington DC, and the 15th Annual Meeting was Hawaii in October, 2017.
Patient Information NCS has a number of resources for patients and families affected by devastating neurologic illness. Survivors have contributed a number of Stories of Hope. The society also publishes a Guide to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and a patient and family brochure. Additional information may be found on the NCS website (www.neurocriticalcare.org).
Guidelines The Neurocritical Care Society has published multiple evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific guidelines on the management of different disease states within neurocritical care that are available for medical practitioners worldwide. These guidelines are available at NCS Guidelines. The following guidelines have been published:
- The Implementation of Targeted Temperature Management
- The Insertion and Management of External Ventricular Drains
- Guideline for Reversal of Antithrombotics in Intracranial Hemorrhage
- Prophylaxis of Venous Thrombosis in Neurocritical Care Patients
- Evidence-based Guidelines for the Management of Large Hemispheric Infarction
- Recommendations For the Critical Care Management of Devastating Brain Injury: Prognostication, Psychosocial, and Ethical Management
- Consensus Summary Statement of the International Multidisciplinary Consensus Conference on Multimodality Monitoring in Neurocritical Care
- Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Status Epilepticus
- Critical Care Management of Patients Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Publications The Neurocritical Care Society began publication of the Neurocritical Care Journal in Spring 2004, and since then, the Neurocritical Care journal has continued publication with Eelco Wijdinks as the Editor-in-Chief.
Additional NCS publications include: