Annual Meeting Invitation

By Justin L. Lockman, MD, MSEd, FAAP
Program Chair

On behalf of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA), I am thrilled to welcome you to San Francisco for the 32nd Annual Meeting.  The Golden Gate City has a fascinating history, including being the birthplace of both the Sierra Club (in 1892) and the United Nations (in 1945).  The city hosted the “Summer of Love” in 1967.  And, more recently, the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley has become the center of high-tech innovation for the nation and the world.

While I hope you have a chance to explore a fraction of what San Francisco has to offer, I encourage you not to miss the exciting day we have planned for you at the Annual Meeting.  The first thing you’ll notice on the program is that we have shorter talks than you may be used to; in fact, the afternoon “PEDx Talks” are only 15 minutes long.  Our goal is to maximize the educational impact of the meeting (maximum of 8.25 CME credits!) while also improving value by cutting out extraneous information and increasing the total number of topics and speakers for the day. We also believe this format change will improve retention of content following the meeting.

In addition to the PEDx Talks covering eight important issues, “don’t miss” sessions for the meeting include a debate about pain management techniques between three of our expert pain physicians (Charles Berde, Connie Monitto, and Sophie Pestieau, and moderated by Myron Yaster), a fascinating research update on the artificial womb by inventor Dr. Alan Flake, and presentation of the SPA Lifetime Achievement Award to Charles B. Berde MD, PhD.  We also have some important neurotoxicity updates, and an entire panel about thoracic issues, including pulmonary hypertension, mediastinal masses, lung isolation in infants, and patients with congenital heart disease for non-cardiac surgery.

Finally, we are honored to have a very special end-of-the-day guest, Dr. Steve Shafer, as he talks about disruptive technology and innovation with the potential to transform pediatric anesthesiology practice in the near future.  I personally cannot wait!

The program also includes opportunities to learn from your colleagues from across the country through our 12 hand-picked PBLD sessions.  Be sure to maximize your CME credit for the meeting by signing up for one of these sessions, too.

All content for the meeting was taken directly from your prior meeting evaluations and identified learning gaps – the planning committee hears you and will continue to try to meet your needs, so please keeping filling out evaluations so we can plan future meetings appropriately.

I have been honored to serve as program chair this year, and I am proud of the meeting we’ve put together for you.  However, you should know that it’s truly a team effort – Dabe Chatterjee (program co-chair), Tammy Wang, Kirk Lalwani and especially Kim Battle spent many hours on the phone with me working to make this meeting a success.  Please thank them when you see them, and enjoy the meeting!