What do Balboa Park, Hua Mei the giant panda, a plate full of authentic Mexican carnitas, and the ASRA 2003 Annual Spring Meeting all have in common? If you answered San Diego you get partial credit. Full credit goes to those who answered San Diego and me! In April, ASRA will return to a favored place to meet and you are invited to obtain full credit by joining the fun.
In 2003, the Spring Meeting will also return to the thematic roots from which our society sprouted over 25 years ago: the use of regional anesthesia to treat peri-operative pain. With the dramatic expansion of interest and practices in both regional anesthesia and pain medicine, our society has grown well equipped to sponsor two individually balanced, focused, and comprehensive meetings. These paired Annual Meetings are the Spring Meeting on peri-operative regional anesthesia and the Fall Meeting on Pain.
Here's what is new and exciting for our 2003 Spring Meeting in San Diego:
The program of speakers will reflect a more international flavor very much in keeping with the international influences behind the regional anesthesia practices we use everyday. The old guard will still be put to work but, many new and exciting speakers are joining the ranks—and doing so from all over the world. General Sessions will have a decidedly fresh and topical focus in 2003 with session titles such as `update on continuous blockade' and `economics and regional anesthesia' setting the theme for their lectures.
The Education and Program committees have devoted much time to improve small-group interactions for 2003. In an effort to match the impact and success of the well established master classes, workshops have been expanded in time and intensity so that each will be hosted by two faculty devoting an hour and a half to demonstrate and discuss those techniques about which ASRA members care the most. Over lunch, you are invited to pick a problem-based learning discussion group and a sandwich and dig in. Other recent small group innovations to the ASRA program will continue: the popular upper and lower extremity intensive workshops will remain a focus, and the opportunity to `break-out with the expert' after each refresher course will be there too.
The newest science will be spotlighted in a presentation of `the best abstracts of the meeting' while a video presentation called "ASRA members home movies' will allow the best practices and innovative techniques of clinicians to shine as well. Lastly, what anesthesia meeting in San Diego would be complete without a visiting veterinarian speaking from the world's most famous zoo?
See you in San Diego,
JC Gerancher MD
Chair, 2003 Annual Spring Meeting
