Dear Society Delegate,
As leaders of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), we are often asked about ways your organization can better engage with SCCM and how your members can more fully interact in SCCM activities. Since its founding in 1970, SCCM has welcomed clinicians from around the world. Recently, SCCM’s Council expanded its global strategy. Below is a list of the many ways we hope your organization and colleagues will engage with us as we all work together to improve patient care worldwide.
Critical Care Congress
- Complimentary Registration: You or your presidential representative receive complimentary registration to Congress annually. Your SCCM staff partner will send you a coupon code to process your free registration in the coming weeks.
- Invitation Letters: The form to request an invitation letter for the 2025 Critical Care Congress is now open! This letter can be used to support your visa application and assist with other travel-related documentation. Please share this with anyone who would benefit from it to avoid delays.
- Submit a Session Proposal: We invite you and your colleagues to submit a scientific session proposal for the 2025 Congress, to be held February 23-26, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. When developing the Congress program, the committee seeks multinational submissions based on recent research activities. Submission does not guarantee acceptance. Proposals are judged by a large group of leading members, which is required to meet strict Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education accreditation standards. An accepted session proposal is the best way to participate as faculty during Congress. Proposals for the 2025 Congress will be accepted starting in October 2024. SCCM will send a reminder when submissions open.
- Submit Abstracts and Case Reports: More than 1500 abstracts and case reports are accepted for presentation at Congress each year. You, your colleagues, and your trainees are encouraged to submit research abstracts or case reports for consideration. Abstracts submitted by SCCM member trainees and non-physicians who are selected to present as the primary author receive complimentary Congress registration. Authors of accepted abstracts and case reports are invited to make short presentations in dedicated Research Snapshot Theaters throughout the event. Check the Congress submission site here for more information.
- Meet With Leadership: Scheduling a meeting with key leaders at SCCM is an excellent way to build and strengthen relationships between our organizations. Meetings can be held in person during Congress but are also welcome via videoconference or when we happen to be in the same city for other meetings. Further, SCCM supports travel costs when your organization invites the SCCM president to visit your country and/or speak at your conference. Reach out directly to president@sccm.org or through your staff partner to schedule a meeting or visit.
- Congress Dates Are Changing: For many years the SCCM Congress has been held in January or February. Starting in 2026, it will be moved to new spring dates. Get the exact dates and locations and learn more about the reasons for the change on our website.
Host a Program
- Expanding Opportunities: For more than 25 years, SCCM has offered its Fundamentals training programs in multiple languages for use at institutions globally. In recent years, we have expanded these offerings to include popular education such as the Multiprofessional Critical Care Review board review course, ultrasound courses, and the Best of SCCM Congress. In 2024, we released a new hosted training program, Airway and Mechanical Ventilation Management, and more courses are in development based on your requests. We also launched our new International Critical Care Examination, which can help your clinicians better understand areas of improvement and acknowledge their educational achievement with a certificate from SCCM.
- Affordability: All SCCM hosted training programs have a fair and flexible tiered pricing structure. Pricing tiers are based on a country’s purchasing power parity per capita as reported by the World Bank. Additionally, SCCM has funding available to provide financial support for organizations in low-resourced settings. Some sites may qualify for free program materials, and others may also receive cash funding to pay for training-related expenses based on generous donations and grants awarded to SCCM for this purpose. In 2024, SCCM funded 10 educational programs in resource-limited areas, comprising three courses and six countries. We encourage you to request funding for sites with special needs.
Global Health
- Resources: Providing training, supplies, and volunteer clinicians worldwide is part of SCCM’s Global Health and crisis response activities. Recently we have supported clinicians in Ukraine, Honduras, and Peru by providing complimentary on-site training and delivering free medical supplies, equipment, and cash funds. Our Africa Infrastructure Relief and Support (AIRS) project has built hospital capacity for stable, sustainable medical oxygen for critically ill patients in the Gambia. This year, we launched a new expansive initiative to reduce mortality from sepsis in low-resourced settings.
- Research and Quality: As part of our commitment to excellence, we prioritize research and quality improvement initiatives. SCCM’s Discovery, the Critical Care Research Network, partners with healthcare professionals and institutions globally as we engage in cutting-edge projects aimed at advancing medical knowledge and patient care. By identifying best practices and innovative strategies, we aim to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery in low-, medium-, and high-resourced settings. We are committed to working alongside local healthcare professionals and organizations such as yours to implement evidence-based improvements that create sustainable positive impacts on patient outcomes. Through close partnerships with individuals and organizations globally, we support research-driven enhancements in healthcare that are accessible to all around the world. To get involved, visit the Discovery page on our website.
- Partnerships: SCCM is actively seeking new external partners, such as foundations, professional associations, and other nongovernmental and government organizations, that can collaborate in providing training and joint research and quality activities. We invite discussions of specific projects that are likely to have a significant impact and that, after local or regional implementation, could be expanded globally.
- More Local Support: As part of SCCM’s commitment to global health, we provide regional staff support through our office in China. In 2025, we will open a new regional office in Dubai to better support our programs and growing membership from India through South Africa. We employ staff who speak multiple languages to assist you in all our offices, and we publish our materials in up to eight languages to make them more accessible.
Increasing Accessibility
- Free Trainee Membership: SCCM offers free membership to those in critical care training programs as part of our Sponsored Trainee Program. Program directors of critical care training programs who maintain a Professional or Select membership with SCCM may enroll their students in the Sponsored Trainee Program. Trainees receive the benefits of Professional membership at no cost while they are in training. Their free membership includes subscription to Critical Connections, membership in specialty sections, discounts on SCCM educational programs and resources, the opportunity to volunteer for participation on an SCCM committee and eligibility to apply for grants and preferred awards, plus much more.
- Tiered Pricing for Everything: We understand that the cost of many SCCM activities can limit their accessibility. While we have long offered a tiered pricing structure for our hosted training programs (described above), we were unable to offer reduced pricing for other programs such as the annual Congress or membership. The tiered discount pricing structure will soon apply to all SCCM programs and activities, including SCCM membership, fellowship in the American College of Critical Care Medicine and related application fees, Congress registration, and all other products and programs. This expansion requires us to replace our central computer system, so this change will become effective as the new system becomes fully functional later this year. Based on per capita income tiers, SCCM will provide a 95% discount for those in Tier 1, an 80% discount for those in Tier 2, and a 50% discount for those in Tier 3. Those in Tier 4 will continue to pay the full price, making everything we offer more accessible worldwide. Our systems will apply these discounts and show the correct pricing on our website once the database conversion is completed. Once the new tiered pricing structure is operational, we will contact you so you can share the news with your members.
In Closing
We hope it’s clear from this letter that SCCM is committed to working closely with you, your organization, and your members as global partners to improve care of the critically ill and injured. No organization is more committed to global partnerships than SCCM, and it’s been our pleasure to have close relationships with many organizations and individuals around the world. Thank you for all you do to improve care. We look forward to a continued and expanded relationship with your organization.
Sincerely,
Lauren R. Sorce, PhD, RN, CPNP-AC/PC, FAAN, FCCM
President 2024
Jose L. Pascual, MD, PhD, FRCS(C), FACS, FCCM
President 2025
David J. Martin, CAE
CEO/Executive Vice-President
