from the editor

The Society and its Sections Are Active on Multiple Fronts

By Sean Flack, MBChB, FCA
SPA News Editor

Welcome to the fall edition of SPA News. As I write this, Houston is recovering from Hurricane Harvey and Florida from Hurricane Irma. I know many of our SPA colleagues have been hugely impacted by these events. You are all in our thoughts. Thank you for being there for your patients. You are all heroes. I hope we will be able to catch up with many of you at our Annual Meeting in Boston on October 20th.  Please let us know how we can help you.

Your society continues to be active on multiple fronts as do our official sections. Consequently, it’s not surprising that the thread that runs through this edition of SPA News is updates. There’s a lot to share! Firstly, I’m grateful to the presidents of CCAS (Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society) and SPPM (Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine) for the updates they have written. Thanks Nina and Anjana! Likewise, an update from our patient safety organization, Wake Up Safe, details their ongoing growth and their activities this past year.

Rita Agarwal completes her term as chair of the AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine in November, so she has penned her final update. Thank you Rita for all you have accomplished in that role and congratulations to Dr. Raeford Brown on his appointment to succeed Rita.

On behalf of the research committee, Nathalia Jimenez has written about the EQUATOR network. This is an excellent resource for medical writing guidelines, and Nathalia’s article is well worth a read if you plan to submit an abstract to SPA or are writing anything from a research study to a case report or a clinical guideline.

In the fall 2016 edition of SPA News, Franklin Chiao wrote about Quadratus Lumborum blocks. His article included a survey that members could take regarding this technique. The results of that survey are presented in the newsletter as a clinical review.

Thanks once again to all the contributors and the many members that have contributed to the work summarized in this newsletter.

See you in Boston!