Message from the Editor

By Sean Flack, MBChB, FCA
SPA News Editor

Welcome to the fall 2018 edition of SPA News. First, congratulations to Dr. Kirk Lalwani on beginning his two-year term as SPA President. The shoes he fills are certainly large ones. Dr. Randy Flick has been a fantastic president and I have learned a great deal about leadership and governance while serving on the board with Randy. The society is in great hands with folks like Kirk, Randy as well as Nina Deutsch and Jim Fehr at the helm.

Virtual Grand Rounds in Pediatric Anesthesia is an example of a new member benefit recently approved by the board.  In collaboration with OpenAnesthesia, every three months the Virtual Grand Rounds will feature a presentation from an expert in pediatric anesthesia. The goal is to provide trainees and practicing pediatric anesthesiologists access to high quality educational content.  “Non-Pharmacology and the Art of Induction” is the topic of the first lecture and Dr. Samuel Rodriguez (Stanford University) is the speaker. A form for feedback and question submission is linked at the end of each presentation; questions on the lecture will be answered in a follow-up interview with the speaker. 

This edition of SPA News contains reviews of all the sessions from the SPA Annual Meeting in San Francisco as well as reviews of a couple of pediatric sessions at the ASA Annual Meeting. I must express my thanks to the members who take the time to write these reviews. It’s hard work and I hope that the members find these summaries useful.

Our society continues to collaborate closely with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Current AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine chair, Dr Raeford Brown, as well as his predecessor, Dr Rita Agarwal, are fantastic advocates for child health and I commend both for their articles in this newsletter.

SPA Global is the new name for SPACIES (SPA Committee for International Education and Service). This year was a milestone one for this committee as they hosted three fellows from the East Africa Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship prior to and during the SPA and ASA annual meetings (previously only one was hosted). Your membership dues help support this vital training, THANK YOU! We’ve included an article about the fellowship in the newsletter.

Now that the annual meeting is in the past, attention turns to the winter meeting which will soon be upon us. I’m looking forward to visiting Houston for the first time. The program is looking excellent and I’m excited to be part of the wellness in action session on Friday afternoon. Pack your running shoes, yoga mat and swim suit! And, then there’s the inaugural SPA Gala on Saturday night. More to come about all this excitement in the winter newsletter.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. As always, please be in touch if there is content you would like to see in your newsletter. My email address is sean.flack@seattlechildrens.org