We have a successful ISRA meeting behind us, and now look forward to next spring. The program for the Scientific Meeting is now available on the website (www.asra.com). Julia Pollock and her Committee have arranged stimulating discussions of surgical, obstetrical, and pain topics, and have added an innovative intensive workshop on brachial plexus anatomy and blockade. This new half-day session organized by Quinn Hogan will include a small group of expert instructors using anatomical specimens and computer aids in comprehensive sessions designed to make the limited number of participants true experts in brachial plexus blockade. Sign up early! This will be in addition to the regular hands-on sessions, which have also been expanded this year to include computer education for our members. Another innovation will be a series of "breakout sessions with the experts" following each of the Refresher Course lectures. Details of these features, as well as information about Vancouver, the hotels and registration forms are all on the website. Remember that submission of abstracts will also be done over the internet, with a January deadline.
Plans are also taking shape for the Pain Meeting next summer. At the Mid-Year Board meeting in September, your Board elected to make this meeting a regular annual event, formally doubling our scientific programs. Mike Ferrante has done an outstanding job in past years in creating this meeting for our members whose primary interest is Pain Medicine. The demand for education in this field makes it inevitable, in the Board’s view, that we will offer a separate program to satisfy this growing subspecialty. This move is consistent with recent input from the ASA itself. They are moving away from Regional Workshops, and would entertain ASRA helping to fill the need for this type of education for the ASA members in pain practices. So expect to see an expanded program of regular Pain Medicine meetings every fall, with didactic sessions complemented by extensive workshops on interventional pain similar to the recent effort at the Annual Meeting in Orlando. The expansion of the Pain Medicine meeting will also allow us to refocus the spring meeting on surgical, obstetrical, and pediatric applications of regional anesthesia.
Other educational programs are also in the works. The joint conference with SOAP is scheduled for February 18-23 in Steamboat Springs. Details and registration are also available on the website. The website will also soon contain some trial CME programs for additional credit, as well as links to several valuable educational sites from around the world.
And speaking of "around the world", it has been my privilege to represent ASRA at the recent meetings of LASRA and ESRA. The European Society celebrated its 20th anniversary meeting in Rome with 1450 registrants, certainly a sign of a healthy sister organization. LASRA likewise has grown to a level of self-sufficiency after initial support from ASRA, and hosted a meeting for 350 in São Paulo with an excellent scientific and social program. Representatives of these two organizations, as well as AOSRA, met in Rome to work on the plans for the World Congress of Regional Anesthesia in Barcelona in the spring of 2002. We can be proud of our efforts in supporting all of this growth, and I am delighted to look ahead to continued expansion of ASRA's role!
Michael F. Mulroy, MD
President, ASRA
