2004 Annual Meeting Update: CME
Verification Process

ASA’s Annual Meeting continues to grow each year, and the 2004 program in Las Vegas, Nevada, will offer attendees more session choices than ever before. An unprecedented number of Problem-Based Learning Discussions, Refresher Courses, Breakfast Panels, panels and workshops are scheduled over the five days of the meeting. New workshops include “Compliance and Billing,” “Emergency Surgical Airway Management Using a Pig Trachea Model” and “Continuous Nerve Blocks for Pain Control: In the Hospital and Beyond.”

A new approach involving two subspecialty tracks has been used to organize some of the educational sessions. A critical care medicine track will be held on Saturday and Sunday and an obstetric anesthesia track has been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Most, if not all, educational sessions related to knowledge in these subspecialties will occur within each track rather than spread throughout the five-day meeting. Please note that some sessions outside of the tracks will contain content that could be considered within the domain of knowledge of critical care or obstetric anesthesiology. The sessions within each track will occur concurrently with other educational sessions that are not specifically part of a track this year.

1998 Nobel Prize winner Louis Ignarro, Ph.D., will speak on “Nitric Oxide as a Unique Signaling Molecule in Biology” during a plenary session to be inaugurated at the 2004 Annual Meeting. The session will take place on Tuesday, October 26, from noon to 12:50 p.m. at the Las Vegas Hilton. Dr. Ignarro and two other researchers received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their three major discoveries involving nitric oxide as a unique signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

Because of current American Medical Association (AMA) requirements for reporting and awarding continuing medical education (CME) credit, ASA will mail certificates for the 2004 Annual Meeting in November and December. To receive a certificate, attendees will either turn in their attendance verification card or use a kiosk in the registration area to note their attendance and complete and return a session verification form to record the sessions that were attended. Attendance can be verified at any time during the meeting. In keeping with AMA and Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education regulations, credit will be given for educational sessions actually attended by each individual. The increased number of sessions at the meeting offers more opportunities to earn CME credit.

A reception will be held in the exhibit hall on Sunday, October 24, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. that will offer unopposed time with exhibitors. Each registrant will receive one complimentary drink ticket. Additional beverages can be purchased.

Also the Housing Bureau is now open on the Web. Reservations can be made online by going to <www2.ASAhq.org> and clicking on “Housing.”

Registration booklets are scheduled to be mailed in early June, and online registration will be available at that time on the Web site listed above. The early preregistration deadline is September 22, 2004. Those who register by that date will receive their name badges, tickets and session verification forms in the mail.