President's Message
Anne M. Lynn, MD
SPA President
For those who were able to attend the Winter Meeting in Sanibel, Florida in February, we finally synchronized with sunny warm weather and had thunder showers only Saturday evening! Good weather has been hard to get at this meeting. On the other hand, as in the past, the meeting topics and speakers were excellent. I hope you all had as good a time as I did. I'm always impressed how our members are willing to participate in workshops, refresher courses and poster discussions. The plenary lectures were extremely well-done too. Lynne Maxwell organized a wonderful meeting and we all benefited.
I foresee the same and more from our next meeting, which will occur in San Francisco on October 10, 2003. This will be our first international meeting with the Japanese Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology. Mark Rockoff, MD and Katsuyuki Miyasaka, MD, PhD have put together an impressive group from the two societies to speak. The approach to the baby with diaphragmatic hernia will be presented by Drs. Harrison and Myers from UCSF and Harvard, respectively, with counterpoint by Dr. Uezono from Tokyo. Dr. Motoyama from Pittsburgh will moderate a section on upper airway and after lunch a comparison of anesthesia training and practice in the two countries will be moderated by Bob Crone. Sten Lindahl will complete the afternoon with a talk on the Nobel Prize. A new part of this meeting is to include posters, both on scientific topics (those being presented at the ASA are welcome) and a group of posters describing pediatric hospitals and services at centers in the USA and Japan. Details for the requirements for these posters may be found on the SPA website with a submission deadline of July 1, 2003. You can register now and can also register for hotel accommodations at the Westin St. Francis with meeting room rates below ASA rates throughout the ASA dates, by using the housing form at www.pedsanesthesia.org. Please come join us for this international sharing and show us your pediatric anesthesia setup!
Several members and friends have asked me what I'd like the legacy of my presidency of SPA to be. I've found this a difficult question to answer: SPA was a well-established, growing society before I arrived, and I expect it will thrive after I've finished my two year term (or I certainly hope I don't stop that!). So to the extent it's possible for one individual to affect SPA success, I would see my wishes as three-fold, SPA past, present and future with apologies to Dickens. I want to honor the past, those who have helped SPA to grow and thrive from its inception. I think donations to the Education and Research Fund in the name of past presidents or founders is a good way to do this or to honor pediatric mentors from your home program. All Board members have contributed to this fund. I want my term to serve the current membership, and for this I welcome the contact many of you have made to serve on committees and to participate in our meetings. This is our Society and it needs participation from as many members as are willing. Thirdly, I hope I can help the future of our speciality by encouraging fellows to join and remain members following their fellowships. We did a pilot program in Sanibel that I'm grateful to Jerry Lerman for organizing. This was a half-day session, only for fellows, with topics that included how to read articles critically, how to write a publishable manuscript, and how to set up a study. The program was well-received and we plan to repeat it next year with more notice so fellows interested may attend. We also hope to be active in helping to develop materials for the pediatric portions of Life-Long Learning as this is formulated by the ABA. We are soliciting interest in a pre-Winter meeting PALS course. I welcome your input as to ways SPA can help your pediatric anesthesia practice.
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