he ASA Annual Meeting continues to grow each year, and the meeting on October 22-26, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana, will be no exception. Attendees will have more session choices, both in terms of numbers and types of sessions. Problem-based learning discussions, refresher courses, panels and workshops and breakfast panels are scheduled over the five days of the meeting. New workshops include “Pediatric Peripheral Blocks,” “Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography” and “Using the ASA Template for Establishing a Quality Management Program.”

Most sessions will be held at the Morial Convention Center. Some sessions are scheduled in the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. The House of Delegates activities will take place at the New Orleans Marriott (on Canal Street).

Much of the educational content will be organized into four learning tracks: Critical Care Medicine and Neuroanesthesia on Saturday and Sunday, and Obstetric Anesthesia and Cardiac Anesthesia on Monday and Tuesday. A track is a concentrated curriculum on a focused area presented over a two-day period. A key concept is to highlight aspects of subspecialty care that are of interest to a broad audience. Most educational sessions related to knowledge in these subspecialties will occur within each track, rather than spread throughout the entire meeting. There will be some sessions outside of the tracks with content that could be considered within the domain of knowledge of each track. The sessions with each track occur concurrently with other educational sessions that are not specifically part of a track this year. ASA will solicit additional feedback about the tracks at the 2005 meeting to be used in planning and improving the 2006 meeting.

Nobel Prize winner Gerald M. Edelman, M.D., Ph.D. will speak on “From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination” at the plenary session scheduled for Sunday, October 23, from noon to 12:50 p.m. at the Morial Convention Center. Dr. Edelman is Director of The Neurosciences Institute and President of Neurosciences Research Foundation, a publicly supported, not-for-profit organization that is the Institute’s parent. He also is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. In 1972 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the structure and function of antibodies.

A future NEWSLETTER article will describe the process for claiming continuing medical education credit for this year’s meeting.

A reception will be held in the exhibit hall on Sunday, October 23 from 4:30-6 p.m. that will offer unopposed time with the exhibitors. Each registrant will receive one complimentary drink ticket. Additional beverages can be purchased at the time of the reception.

The ASA Housing Bureau is now open, and reservations can be made online by going to <www2.ASAhq.org> and clicking on “ASA Housing Web Site.”

Registration booklets are scheduled to be mailed in early June. Online registration will be available at that time at the Web site listed above. The early preregistration deadline is September 21, 2005. Please note that this is also the deadline for all refunds and exchanges. Persons who register by this date will receive their name badges, tickets and session documentation forms in the mail. Online registration only will continue until October 11, 2005, with no refunds or exchanges permitted after September 21. Attendees who register online between September 22 and October 11 will pick up their badges and tickets at the meeting.

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.