pediatric anesthesiology 2017
An Invitation to Pediatric Anesthesiology 2017
By John Fiadjoe, MD
Program Chair
On behalf of the meeting planning committee, I am excited to invite you to register for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA)/American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (AAP) Pediatric Anesthesiology 2017 meeting in Austin Texas, March 3-5, 2017. The Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society and the Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine meetings will kick things off on Thursday in addition to afternoon workshops. The location is fantastic, and the meeting content promises to be vibrant and relevant to our daily practice. If I think about our upcoming meeting as a play, I envision three acts woven together by a thread of fun.
Act 1 challenges our accepted paradigms: The opioid abuse epidemic and their use in clinical care. Ventilatory care of the neonate and small child. Anesthetic neurotoxicity (timely in light of the new FDA black box warning). Total intravenous anesthesia in pediatric practice, NPO guidelines and much more. Regarding anesthetic neurotoxicity, what should we say to families? Should we have a template to guide these conversations? Does the data support the FDA statement? Why are there differences in the science from Europe vs. the United States and many more questions will be tackled in a new roundtable format. We explore the many emerging applications of ultrasonography in our clinical care. In Europe some centers have moved to mandating clear liquids one hour before anesthesia induction, are there benefits to doing this? How strong is the evidence supporting our current NPO guidelines? Come and listen to the spirited evidence-based debate on the topic. Can gastric ultrasound help? Is there data to support this liberal fluid practice? Come to Austin to learn more. Drug errors remain our Achilles heel, can workspace design help? How big is the problem? What do you know about craniofacial syndromes? What transfusion practices are essential for safe reconstructive surgery in these patients? Research is the key to our specialties future and we will hear updates from our 2016 SPA young investigators. New workshops in Act 1 will teach you to use ultrasound at the point of care, shed light on medical malpractice issues and much more.
Act 2 focuses on caring for the caregiver. Simon Sinek, a popular author, argues that businesses that focus solely on customers are misguided and that caring for the people who care for the customers enhances the customer experience and inevitably the company’s bottom line. Sometimes we focus on patients to the exclusion of the caregiver. Act 2 covers strategies to care for and improve us, the caregivers. We introduce topics such as mindfulness and emotional intelligence and offer new workshops on work-life balance and professionalism.
Act 3 focuses on improving networking and ties within our membership. Connecting our members enhances our relationships, improves our collaboration and makes us a happier organization. Look for opportunities for dinner signup with other members you may not know, introduce yourself to someone seated beside you, attend our social events at the meeting and explore the musical offerings in Austin with fellow SPA members. Reach out beyond your inner circle of friends and build social ties, it makes us happier, fosters collaboration in research and quality improvement and creates a stronger Society.
Psst... final tip! You want to book a late flight and hotel check out on Sunday to catch the millionaire game show fun. See Y’all in Austin!
