The Society for Pediatric Anesthesia’s 28th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana
By James J. Fehr, MD, FAAP
Annual Meeting Program Chair
St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University
St. Louis, MO
The 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia returns on October 10th, 2014 to New Orleans, home of jazz, culinary adventures, the French Quarter, the Mississippi Delta and the occasional inebriate. The Crescent City has a long history as a hospitable site for the SPA meeting and this year’s gathering promises to uphold the highest standards of the SPA by assembling experts on a diverse range of interesting topics.
The meeting opens with apéritifs: an assortment of PBLDs that are filling fast! The topics are interesting, the moderators engaging and the pleasures are unlimited! Sign up immediately to get the best seats in the house!
The first lectures pair two dynamic scientist-anesthesiologists discussing the mechanisms of consciousness (apropos for a city that profits from soporifics). Dr. Emery Brown, a winner of the NIH’s Pioneer Award, is the Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard and a superlative speaker. Dr. George Mashour, neuroanesthesiologist at the University of Michigan and recipient of the ASA’s Presidential Scholar award, will expand on the topic. I promise that these speakers will leave your curiosity well sated. Following a brief break to interact with your many friends, munch on carrot sticks and interface with the exhibitors, it is back to the ballroom, Cinderella.
The second session will be an exploration of the toxicities of anesthetics by three talented SPA members who demonstrate the potential and future of pediatric anesthesia research. Dr. Rick Levy, the chief of pediatric cardiac anesthesia at Children’s National Medical Center, will discuss the toxic effects of carbon monoxide. You will regard your car more warily thereafter. Dr. Jason Maynes, the Director of Anesthesia Research at Sick Kids in Toronto, brings international flavor to this meeting and will explore the effect of anesthetics on mitochondrial dynamics. Dr. Andreas Loepke, a multilingual cardiac anesthesiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, will review the neurotoxic effects of anesthetics on immature neurons and the child’s vulnerable brain. This triumvirate will educate us, enlighten us, and prepare us for the quotidian activity of eating lunch.
After an appetizing lunch and dessert there will be a special treat: the bestowing of the first SPA Lifetime Achievement Award to honor an individual whose outstanding contributions to our specialty and significant impact on the perioperative care of children is unquestionable. The recipient of this inaugural award will be Dr. Myron Yaster, Johns Hopkins professor, SPA founding father and pediatric anesthesiologist extraordinaire. Following the award ceremony, and after the confetti and leis have been collected, the afternoon program will open. There will be a fantastic lecture by Dr. David Dinges, the Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and an international authority on sleep deprivation. This topical, serious, anti-hypnagogic lecture will highlight the challenges we all confront with our trainees, our patients and ourselves.
A break will follow to allow you to press the flesh, chat with the exhibitors, and then return to the closing afternoon lectures. The final series will tackle challenging situations confronting all pediatric anesthesiologists. Dr. Martin Drell is Professor and Head of Child Psychiatry at LSU New Orleans and the immediate past president of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He will discuss the challenges that are presented when bad things happen to good kids, and will explore the psychosocial dimensions and psychiatric perspectives of the impact of illness and hospitalization on children. Dr. Susan Staudt, the pediatric anesthesia fellowship director at the Medical College of Wisconsin, will discuss conflict resolution and techniques we might use in our own practice. Finally, Dr. Nancy Glass, our current SPA president, will honor us with a closing discussion of the anesthesiologist’s role in the care of the dying child.
And what could make this exciting event even more enticing? MOCA Part II Patient Safety credits! The Loepke, Dinges and Staudt lectures are all eligible for these credits so sign up now! This multicourse event is prix fixe, and each lecture adds important information that in the course of our ordinary workday we may transiently consider but lack the time to digest more thoroughly. This is your opportunity. Please, come, and partake with us this delectable program. This will be your only chance to attend the 28th Annual SPA Meeting. Why let a good thing go? Life is truly too short.
