Committees

Affiliations Committee

The Affiliations Committee is responsible for reviewing and establishing collaborations with local, national, and international organizations with an interest in Office-Based, Ambulatory, and Non-Operating Room Anesthesia. The purpose of these collaborations is to improve patient care and safety by promoting joint education programs including research and providing required representation to establish safe principles of care and accreditation guidelines.

Members

Chair: Kumar Belani, MD, SAMBA-F
Vice-Chair: JP Ouanes, MD
Board Advisor: Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Sean Daley, MD
Steven Gayer, MD
Salomon Imiak, MD
Girish P. Joshi, MB, BS, MD, SAMBA-F
Tara Kelly, MD
Sakura Kinjo, MD
Christina Menor, MD
Jyoti Pandya, MD
BobbieJean Sweitzer, MD, FACP, SAMBA-F, FASA
Meghan C. Valach, MD
Arnaldo Valedon, MD, SAMBA-F
Lisa Weiss, MD
Russell Woda, DO

Bylaws Committee

The SAMBA Bylaws Committee is responsible for the maintenance of the society bylaws, which is the set of rules that helps to guide the organization’s operations and activities.

Members

Chair: Jill Patzner, MD
Board Advisor: Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Jamey Eklund, MD
Arnaldo Valedon, MD, SAMBA-F
Michael Walsh, MD, SAMBA-F

Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee

The Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee works closely with other committees to develop various guidelines. This process involves a literature search, selecting and grading the available evidence, and developing recommendations. In the absence of high quality evidence, expert opinion and consensus are used to formulate recommendations. The guidelines and practice advisories thus developed are published on the SAMBA website or as a journal article. The Guidelines Committee also works closely with other subspecialty societies to update or develop Practice Guidelines.

Members

Co-Chair: Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Co-Chair: Girish P. Joshi, MB, BD, MD, SAMBA-F
Board Advisor: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Barry Brasfield, MD
Elizabeth Duggan, MD
John George III, MD
Scott Harshman, MD
Kunal Karamchandi, MD
Maria Michaelis, MD
Chhaya Patel, MD, SAMBA-F
Karlyn Powell, MD
Tanya Randall, MD
Justin Routman, MD
Arnaldo Valedon, MD, SAMBA -F
Lisa Weiss, MD

CME Committee

The SAMBA CME committee provides oversight for the CME offerings of SAMBA. It has traditionally ensured accreditation for the CME offerings of the society including the annual meeting, webinars, and website content.

Members

Chair: Julius Pawlowski, MD
Vice-Chair: Melinda Seering, MD
Board Advisor: Michael O'Rourke, MD
Steve Butz, MD, SAMBA-F
Kenneth Cummings, MD
Chhaya Patel, MD, SAMBA-F
Michael Presta, DO
Srinivas Pyati, MD, MBBS

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee aims to develop and maintain effective communications with SAMBA members, other professional societies, other medical specialties, surgical patients, and the public to promote the medical specialty of ambulatory anesthesiology. It maintains effective communications via the SAMBA mailing list, social media accounts, website, webinars, and other electronic media. One of the key responsibilities of the committee is to contribute articles and ideas to the SAMBA LINK Newsletter. The committee also facilitates the communications between various SAMBA committees.

Members

Chair: Sher-Lu Pai, MD, SAMBA-F
Vice-Chair: Kelly Lebak, MD, FASA
Board Advisor: Alberto Ardon, MD, MPH, SAMBA-F
Tazeen Beg, MD
Shaina Drummond, MD
Jarrett Heard, MD
Caryn Hertz, MD
Yvette Martin McGrew, MD
Sudarahan Setty, MD
Renuka Shenoy, MD

Dental Anesthesia Committee

The Dental Anesthesia Committee is a general resource for anesthesiologists who want to share and exchange information to promote and provide safe anesthesia in the dental and oral surgery office setting.

Members

Chair: Steve C. Yun, MD
Board Advisor: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Grace "Lee" Dorsch, MD
Joseph “Max” Hendrix, MD, SAMBA-F
Naixi Li, MD
Dallen Mill, MD
Daniel Nieva, MD
Stanford Plavin, MD
Anastasios Sakellariou, DMD, MD
Philip Yen, DDS

Development Committee

The Development Committee represents SAMBA and builds relationships with pharmaceutical, and industrial supporters and sponsors. The committee creates and maintains SAMBA prospectus for exhibiting at, partnering with, and sponsoring SAMBA. The committee fundraises to support SAMBA’s mission and vision, especially the educational endeavors.

Members

Chair: Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Vice-Chair: Kenneth Cummings, MD
Board Advisor: Victor Davila, MD, SAMBA-F
Jyoti Pandya, MD
Michael Walsh, MD, SAMBA-F

Education Committee

The Education Committee is here to educate our members. We organize monthly webinars. These webinars are live with a speaker giving a lecture on a topic with time for questions and answers at the end. The webinars are available for future viewing on the SAMBA website. We also submit and organize a SAMBA Panel with experts to ASA Annual Meeting. In the past we have worked on other online learning tools such as Anesthesia Tool Box. We are always happy to collaborate with others on educational projects.

Members

Chair & Board Advisor: Jaime Hyman, MD
Vice-Chair: Chhaya Patel, MD, SAMBA-F
Claude Abdallah, MD, MS
Kara M. Barnett, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Mary Blanchette, MD
Steven Butz, MD, SAMBA-F
Tyler Chernin, MD
Karlyn Powell, MD
Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Tanya Randall, MD
Jorge Rubio, MD
Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Ashley Shilling, MD
Connie Tran, MD
Rafael Vazquez, MD

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee meets to review the results of the audit process and make recommendations for budgetary and investment actions to be approved by the Board.

Members

Chair: Victor Davila, MD, SAMBA-F
Board Advisor: Michael Presta, DO
Peter DeSocio, DO
Steven Gayer, MD
John George III, MD
Melissa Kreso, MD, MsBA, FASA
Dawn Schell, MD, SAMBA-F

Meetings Committee

The Meetings Committee works year-long on the logistics of planning the Annual Meeting in regard to location, topics, speakers, and format. It also delegates authority to other members in planning specialty meetings such as Office-Based Anesthesia, Medical Directors, Ambulatory Pediatrics, Mid-year, etc. The committee also works within the financial framework to provide at least an even budget, if not a profit. Work is in done in tandem with the Development, CME, and Education Committees.

Members

Co-Chair: Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Co-Chair: Simon Lee, MD
Board Advisor: Steven Butz, MD, SAMBA-F
Kara M. Barnett, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Jaime Hyman, MD
Girish Joshi, MBBS, MD, FCAI
Kelly Lebak, MD, FASA
Michael O’Rourke, MD
Michael Presta, DO
Srinivas Pyati, MD
Leopoldo Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAAP, FASA, SAMBA-F
Dawn Schell, MD, SAMBA-F
Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Arnaldo Valedon, MD, SAMBA -F
Michael Walsh, MD, SAMBA-F

Membership Committee

The SAMBA Membership Committee promotes the benefits of SAMBA membership, identifies issues important to our members, and works to enhance the value of SAMBA membership by evaluating both current and potential products and services. The committee evaluates due structures and can also be tasked by the Board of Directors to address membership-related issues or special projects that requires discussion, research and recommendations for changes to SAMBA membership.

Members

Chair: Sonia Pyne, MD
Vice-Chair: John George III, MD
Board Advisor: Richard Urman, MD
Mary Blanchette, MD
Peter DeSocio, DO
Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Ramprasad Sripada, MD
Olga Vornovitsky, MD

Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee is responsible for scouting talented interested members, and encouraging, supporting, mentoring, and nominating them to different leadership positions

Members

Chair: Dawn Schell, MD, SAMBA-F
Board Advisor: Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
Basem Abdelmalak, MD, SAMBA-F
Kumar Belani, MD, SAMBA-F
Leopoldo Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA, SAMBA-F
Arnaldo Valedon, MD, SAMBA -F
Michael Walsh, MD, SAMBA-F

Non-Operating Room Anesthesia Committee

As non-operating room anesthesia (NORA) cases increase each year so does interest in the Non-Operating Room Anesthesia (NORA) Committee of SAMBA. It is our hope that this group can address the special challenges to providing safe care in NORA settings, while being vigilant with the medical complexity of these patients. In this rapidly changing field, we hope to focus our attention on the implementation of innovative technologies, procedures or medications while harboring a special focus on patient safety. With new challenges being seen each day, we hope we can foster a better understanding of the risks associated with NORA while maintaining quality care that benefits all of our patients.

Members

Chair & Board Advisor: Michael Presta, DO
Vice-Chair: Kara M. Barnettt, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Omaira Azizad, MD
Anthony Bonavia, MD
Tazeen Beg, MD
Kar-Mei Chan, MD
Ahmad Elsharydah, MD, MBA
Akil Farishta, MD
Claudia Fernandez Robles, MD
Kunal Karamchandani, MD
Ellis Lai, MD
Jessica Lovich-Sapola, MD
Maria Michaelis, MD
Kevin Min, MD
Bernadette Pasamba-Rakhlin, MD
Mark Phillips, MD
Justin Routman, MD
Dane Saksa, MD
Hedwig Schroeck, MD
Rafael Vazquez, MD
Olga Vornovitsky, MD
Michael Walsh, MD, SAMBA-F
Audra Webber, MD
Ryan Wilson, MD
Russell Woda, MD

Office-Based Anesthesia Committee

The Office-Based Anesthesia (OBA) Committee is a general resource of anesthesia providers who want to share and exchange information to provide safe anesthesia care in the office-based procedural and surgical setting.

Members

Chair & Board Advisor: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Vice-Chair: Meghan C. Valach, MD
Susan Bazzell, MD
Cassie Dietrich, MD
Grace “Lee” Dorsch, MD
Penelope Duke, MD
Kelly Lebak, MD, FASA
Keira Mason, MD
Stanford Plavin, MD
Philip Yen, DDS

Ophthalmologic Anesthesia Committee

The Ophthalmologic Anesthesia Committee deals with all aspects of Ophthalmic anesthesia, surgery, and ambulatory care with particular emphasis on teaching ophthalmic regional anesthesia, relevant sedation techniques, and general anesthetic aspects pertinent to the niche subspecialty.

Members

Chair: Steve Gayer, MD
Vice-Chair: Tina Tran, MD
Board Advisor: Dawn Schell, MD, SAMBA-F
Aparna Chunduri, MD
Maggie Jeffries, MD
Jeremy Juang, MD
Melissa Kreso, MD, MsBA, FASA
Sameh Nour, MD
J Eric Theisen, MD
Mary Ann Vann, MD, FASA

Pediatric Anesthesia Committee

The Pediatric Anesthesia Committee’s (PAC) Mission is to promote the highest standards of anesthesia care and safety for pediatric patients in Pediatric Ambulatory Surgery Centers (PASC) and other settings

Members

Co-Chair: Audra Webber, MD
Co-Chair: Marjorie Brennan, MD
Vice-Chair: Chhaya Patel, MD, SAMBA-F
Board Advisor: Niraja Rajan, MD, SAMBA-F
David Beebe, MD
Steven Butz, MD, SAMBA-F
Kar-Mei Chan, MD
Jamey Eklund, MD
Benjamin Massey, MD
Sameh Nour, MD
Jill Wilson, MD

Performance Measures Committee

The Performance Measures Committee is responsible for developing, reviewing or advising on ways to determine the effectiveness of processes, procedures and systems to improve and optimize patient outcomes in ambulatory and office-based anesthesia settings.

Members

Chair: Thomas Durick, MD
Vice-Chair: Yvette Martin McGrew, MD
Board Advisor: Steven Gayer, MD
Barry Brasfield, MD
Aparna Chunduri, MD
Victor Davila, MD
Gregory Dodson, MD
Akil Farishta, MD
Jarrett Heard, MD
Michael Kushelev, MD
Maria Michaelis, MD
Sonia Pyne, MD
Lisa Weiss, MD

Regional Anesthesia Committee

The Regional Anesthesia Committee advances the knowledge and use of regional anesthesia and modern acute pain management approaches in the ambulatory setting.

Members

Chair: Ashley Shilling, MD
Vice-Chair: Hanae Tokita, MD
Board Advisor: Alberto Ardon, MD, MPH, SAMBA-F
Sophia Dunworth, MD
John George III, MD
Roy Greengrass, MD
Jihye Ha, MD
John Hagen, MD, MBA, FAAP
Sakura Kinjo, MD
Michael Kushelev, MD
Charles Luke, MD
Harika Nagavelli, MD
Sindhuja Nimma, MD
Olga Nin, MD
Michael O’Rourke, MD
Jyoti Pandya, MD
Jorge Rubio, MD
Melinda Seering, MD
Ramprasad Sripada, MD
Jesse Stewart, MD

Resident Committee

The Resident Committee provides a framework for residents to participate in the education and guidance of the specialty of ambulatory anesthesia. They participate in the development of the resident lectures at the Annual Meeting and provide opportunities to network throughout the year.

Members

Co-Chair: Patrick Connell, MS
Co-Chair: Anthony Dinkel, MD
Vice-Chair: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA
Board Advisor: Victor Davila, MD, SAMBA-F
Omaira Azizad, MD
Jaime Hyman, MD
Jesse Stewart, MD
Connie Tran, MD
Chris Wolla, MD
Steven Young, MD

Scientific Papers Committee

The Committee on Scientific Papers is committed to furthering scientific research and recognizing advances in the field of ambulatory anesthesia. The committee is responsible for abstract review prior to the annual meeting, abstract award determination, and research grant review.

Members

Chair & Board Advisor: Kara M. Barnett, MD, FASA, SAMBA-F
Vice-Chair: Anthony Bonavia, MD
Sabry Ayad, MD
David Beebe, MD
Katie Bridges, MD
Kenneth Cummings, MD
Ahmad Elsharydah, MD, MBA
Sarah Fandre, MD
Imoh Ikpot, MD
Kunal Karamchandani, MD
Jennifer Matos, MD
Kevin Min, MD
Bernadette Pasamba-Rakhlin, MD
Chhaya Patel, MD, SAMBA-F
Clinton Pillow, MD
Sudarahan Setty, MD
Ramprasad Sripada, MD
Yamini Subramani, MD
Ryan Wilson, MD

Website Committee

The Website Committee is responsible for curating and reviewing website content and functionality, investigating issues and comments, and exploring opportunities to improve, advance, and modernize the website.

Members