ust like the city of Las Vegas, the ASA Annual Meeting continues to expand and better itself year after year. The 2004 Annual Meeting drew a total of 18,459 attendees — a new record for attendance, including 3,675 exhibitors, also a record high! Certainly the entertainment options available in Las Vegas were a big draw for many, but the educational options at the Las Vegas Convention Center were equally immense.

The inaugural subspecialty tracks in obstetric anesthesia and critical care medicine were well attended and evoked positive responses from those who participated. Pro/con debates and point/counterpoint sessions were especially popular. These learning tracks set a clear and positive precedent, and expanded subspecialty tracks will be included at next year’s Annual Meeting, including more tracks in obstetric and critical care anesthesia and new tracks in cardiac anesthesia and neuroanesthesia.

Below are some of the other highlights from this year’s meeting:

Inaugural Plenary Session on Translational Research
In an effort to emphasize the importance of anesthesiology-related research to patient safety and improvements in medicine, the Committee on Annual Meeting Opportunities developed a new Plenary Session on Translational Research. 1998 Nobel Prize-winner Louis J. Ignarro, Ph.D., was the honored speaker. Dr. Ignarro discussed “Nitric Oxide as a Unique Signaling Molecule in Biology.” By all accounts, this first plenary session was informative and well-received, and next year’s session is expected to be just as successful.

Installation of ASA President
Eugene P. Sinclair, M.D., was installed as ASA President for 2005. Dr. Sinclair has served as President-Elect (2004); First Vice-President (2003); Speaker of the House of Delegates (2000-02); Vice-Speaker (1994-99); Director (1987-93); and Alternate Director (1984-86). He has been a member of the committees on Ambulatory Surgical Care, Bylaws, and Quality Improvement and Practice Management, and several task forces studying practice parameters, practice management and exclusive contracts. He also has been an ASA Representative to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Ambulatory Health Care PTAC. Dr. Sinclair is Chief of Anesthesia Service, Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Other ASA Officers

President-Elect

Orin F. Guidry, M.D.

First Vice-President

Mark J. Lema, M.D., Ph.D.

Vice-President for Professional Affairs

Alexander A. Hannenberg, M.D.

Vice-President for Scientific Affairs

Charles W. Otto, M.D.

Secretary

Peter L. Hendricks, M.D.

Treasurer

Roger A. Moore, M.D.

Assistant Secretary

Gregory K. Unruh, M.D.

Assistant Treasurer

John M. Zerwas, M.D.

Speaker, House of Delegates

Candace E. Keller, M.D.

Vice-Speaker, House of Delegates

John P. Abenstein, M.D.

Newly elected First Vice-President Mark J. Lema, M.D., Ph.D., is a first-time ASA officer. Dr. Lema has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2002 and has served as an Alternate Delegate (1991-94) and Delegate (1995-2004) to the House of Delegates, was Chair of the Committee on Newsletter (1997-03) and was a member of the committees on Panels (1994-97), Pain Management (1994-99), Communications (1997-03) and CME Strategic Planning (2003-present). He was ASA NEWSLETTER Editor from 1997-03. Dr. Lema has served as Vice-President (1999), President-Elect (2000), President (2001) and Past President (2002) of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists (NYSSA) and has been active on numerous NYSSA committees since 1990. He also has been Vice-President (2002), President-Elect (2003), President (2004) and Past President (2005) of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (2002-present). Dr. Lema is currently Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Critical Care at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York, and Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Vice-President for Scientific Affairs Charles W. Otto, M.D., also is a first-time ASA officer. Dr. Otto has served as a Delegate (1986-04), Alternate Delegate (1983-86), Alternate Director for Arizona (1989-04), Chair, Western Caucus (2000-04) and Chair, Section on Society Subspecialties (2003-04), Section on Annual Meeting (2001-02), Committee on Scientific Papers (1999-00), Committee on Refresher Courses (1991-99) and Committee on Annual Meeting Review (1995-96, 1999-03). He also served as Vice-Chair of the Section on Education and Research (2000-03) and the Section on Annual Meeting (2000-01) and was a member of various ASA committees and task forces. Dr. Otto was President (1984), President-Elect (1983-84), Vice-President (1982-83), Secretary-Treasurer (1980-83) and Director (1985-89) of the Arizona Society of Anesthesiologists and chaired several state component committees. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (1996-present), a Senior Associate Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology (1995-present) and was President (2004), President-Elect (2003) and Vice-President (2002) of the Academy of Anesthesiology. Dr. Otto is currently Professor of Anesthesiology and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Arizona.

ASA 2005 Officers The 2005 ASA officers are (front row from left): Roger W. Litwiller, M.D.; ASA President Eugene P. Sinclair, M.D.; Orin F. Guidry, M.D.; Mark J. Lema, M.D., Ph.D.; (middle row) Alexander A. Hannenberg, M.D.; Gregory K. Unruh, M.D.; Roger A. Moore, M.D.; Peter L. Hendricks, M.D.; (back row) John M. Zerwas, M.D.; John P. Abenstein, M.D.; Candace E. Keller, M.D.; and Charles W. Otto, M.D.

Awards and Honors
The ASA Distinguished Service Award was presented to Robert K. Stoelting, M.D., a leading figure in anesthesiology and patient safety for almost five decades. Dr. Stoelting has been President of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation since 1997. He is credited with helping to discover the relationship between anesthetic gas solubility and rate of recovery from anesthesia. Dr. Stoelting retired as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2003.

The 2004 Award for Excellence in Research was given to Clifford J. Woolf, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Woolf has devoted much of his more than 30 years in the medical field to the study of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of pain. His laboratory at the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital is one of the major pain research centers in the United States. Dr. Woolf is the first incumbent of the Richard J. Kitz Chair of Anesthesia Research at Harvard Medical School.

Jerome H. Modell, M.D., presented the 2004 Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture. Dr. Modell presented “Assessing the Past and Shaping the Future of Anesthesiology.” In his talk, he touched upon the importance of making sure that the general public, not just those in medicine, appreciates and understands the important role that anesthesiologists play in health care. Dr. Modell served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Florida-Gainesville from 1969 to 2002, helping to make that department one of the largest and most prestigious in the nation.

Media Awards
The 2004 ASA Media Award winners included Donna Gehrke-White of the Miami Herald; the team of Robin Guess, John Fulton and Aaron Wische of WFTS-TV (ABC Action News); and Mary Ann VanDevelde of WPXI.com. Ms. Gehrke-White received her award for the May 1 Herald article, “A Survivor’s Story,” which describes the tale of an anesthesiology resident who was given a second chance after being severely injured in an auto accident as a youth. An investigative news report by Ms. Guess and staff at ABC’s affiliate in Tampa, Florida, unraveled the tragic and preventable death of Julie Rubenzer, a plastic surgery patient who was operated on without benefit of an anesthesia professional, and her death is blamed on complications of the improperly administered and managed anesthesia. The Web-based winner produced by Ms. VanDevelde featured Doris K. Cope, M.D., director of the Pain Medicine Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Dr. Cope’s childhood memories of her grandmother’s struggle with cancer pain fueled her desire to evaluate and treat pain. The article details her work at UPMC and the field of pain medicine. WPXI.com is affiliated with WPXI-TV, Channel 11 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Click here for a complete list of Scientific and Educational Exhibit Award winners.