Anesthesia Resident Receives Two Awards at the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Annual Meeting

Dr. Alex Bak, a first-year anesthesiology resident at the University of Toronto, will be honoured with two prestigious awards at the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC ) Annual Meeting.

Bak will receive the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Award as well as the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society Abstract Award for his research, “Risk Factors for Chronic Dysphagia after Anterior Surgical Decompression for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Results of the Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled, Phase III, CSM-Protect Clinical Trial.”

These are the first major awards he has won for anesthesia research, having previously been more involved in spine-specific conferences. Describing himself as a late convert to the field, Bak said he was both surprised and excited by the honour.

“I found out about the awards a few days apart, and it was very unexpected, to be honest. I feel extremely grateful not only to the Society and the reviewers, but also to my mentors who helped me get to this stage.”

Bak’s interest in dysphagia recovery developed organically during his clinical electives and collaboration with Dr. Michael Fehlings, a renowned neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital. “Working with Dr. Fehlings and in the intensive care unit, I saw that dysphagia could manifest in various degrees of severity, from minor discomfort to severe complications. I wanted to investigate this further, especially considering how severe dysphagia can significantly impact a patient’s morbidity and mortality.”

The results supported the belief that there is a diverse range of patients for whom the usual expectation of improved dysphagia soon after anterior spine surgery may not hold true, which Bak found somewhat surprising.

“I suspected that some patients would experience persistent dysphagia, but I was surprised by the larger than anticipated number,” he noted. “The study highlighted a distinct population with specific clinical characteristics that may predispose them to prolonged dysphagia, even up to a year after surgery. This was eye-opening, especially since most existing research focuses on short-term outcomes.”

One of Bak’s research goals was to graph the clinical trajectory of patients’ dysphagia after surgery with the hope of identifying characteristics that could influence patient outcomes. He is hopeful that future research could further refine these insights to enhance patient care.

Reflecting on his journey into research, Bak described it as an unexpected and evolving passion. “Research was a foreign concept to me. It wasn’t until I met several inspiring mentors that I truly understood its impact and significance at scale,” he said. “I hope I can continue conducting meaningful research throughout my career and eventually guide and inspire future researchers.”

SNACC’s Annual Meeting allows young scientists to engage and present quality improvement and research projects. The 2024 meeting will be held in Denver, Colorado, on September 12-14, 2024.