he Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) was founded in 1968 to provide, in the words of our bylaws, “a forum for discussion of problems unique to the peripartum period. It promotes excellence in medical care, education and research in obstetric anesthesia.” SOAP is the official obstetric anesthesiology subspecialty organization that participates in the ASA House of Delegates, and the abstracts presented at our Annual Meeting are published in Anesthesiology. We value the relationship with our parent organization highly and would like to update ASA members on the activities of our Society.

Annual Meeting
SOAP’s 38th Annual Meeting was held on April 26-30, 2006, at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Our meeting hosts, Jose Carvalho, M.D., Ph.D., and David J. Birnbach, M.D., M.P.H., were faced with an enormous task when our original site became unavailable on extremely short notice. Through their hard work, and that of our management team at the International Anesthesia Research Society, the meeting was seamlessly transferred to the Diplomat with extremely successful results. High points of the meeting included the Gerard W. Ostheimer What’s New in Obstetric Anesthesia Lecture delivered by Roshan Fernando, M.D. of the Royal Free Hospital in London; the What’s New in Obstetrics Lecture presented by the distinguished obstetrician Howard Minkoff, M.D.; and the Fred Hehre Lecture, named after one of the founders of SOAP, which was movingly presented by David H. Chestnut, M.D. A scientific panel on team training in obstetrics was an enormous success; on the basis of its excellent reception by our members, a panel on patient safety is to be incorporated into our future meetings.

Our 2007 meeting will be held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada, on May 16-19. The meeting will be preceded by a joint symposium with the Japanese Society of Anesthesiology. There also will be workshops in anesthesia simulation, regional anesthesia and neonatal resuscitation. Registration is available on the SOAP Web site www.SOAP.org. We welcome all ASA members with an interest in obstetric anesthesiology to attend.

Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Accreditation
SOAP has spearheaded the efforts to obtain accreditation of training in obstetric anesthesiology from the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) through our Task Force on Accreditation, chaired by Alan Santos, M.D., and our Education Committee, chaired by Linda S. Polley, M.D. A formal application has been submitted to ACGME, and as of this writing, plans are being finalized for representatives of SOAP to meet with ACGME within the next several months. The SOAP Board of Directors feels strongly that ACGME accreditation is critically important for the subspecialty of obstetric anesthesiology. By defining a body of knowledge and by providing uniform training standards, we hope to enhance the stature of the subspecialty, increase recruitment into our fellowships and thereby increase opportunities for further development of the academic discipline of obstetric anesthesiology. The pertinent documents can be found on our Web site at www.soap.org/acgme_fellowship.htm.

Patient Safety
As mentioned above, our very successful panel on team training in obstetrics has encouraged SOAP to make patient safety issues a formal, ongoing component of our meetings, with an annual scientific panel dedicated to this topic. As further evidence of SOAP’s commitment to this critically important issue, we have established a new Patient Safety Committee chaired by Stephen D. Pratt, M.D. Its mission is to promote patient safety, to develop educational activities on this and related topics and to assist SOAP’s Board in formulating patient safety policies and practices. We eagerly look forward to working with ASA to ensure that the highest quality of anesthesia care is provided to pregnant women.

Resident Participation
The continued health of SOAP depends upon the recruitment of new members, and there is no source with greater potential than current residents in training. SOAP has established an Ad Hoc Committee on Resident Membership, chaired by Joanne C. Hudson, M.D., with David Louw, M.D., serving as resident chair. This group has been asked to establish methods of communicating with residents-in-training in order to better inform them of SOAP activities. The committee hopes to participate in the development of a mentorship program, providing residents with the opportunity to learn from established obstetric anesthesiologists. The group also plans to establish a formal mechanism for scheduling a resident forum to be held at SOAP’s Annual Meeting. The first of these will be held in Banff, and details can be found on the SOAP Web site. All residents with an interest in obstetric anesthesiology are welcome.

International Outreach
Finally, I would like to provide an update on the overseas educational activities that are partially supported by SOAP. Medge D. Owen, M.D, chair of SOAP’s International Outreach Committee, has organized educational missions to a number of developing countries through the charitable organization Kybele, Inc. Using volunteers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other nations, Kybele seeks to improve the provision of anesthetic care to pregnant women and their infants through training in regional anesthesia techniques as well as newborn resuscitation. In 2006-07, volunteers will travel to Georgia, Armenia, Ghana and Brazil. These volunteers pay their own way; funds provided by SOAP help to fund the preparation of educational materials, transportation within the country that is being visited, and travel expenses for a Ghanaian anesthesiologist to attend our annual meeting. For a relatively modest cost, we feel that SOAP and Kybele can have a tremendous impact on the health care of women in a manner that is fully consistent with the wishes of those far-seeing anesthesiologists who founded SOAP almost 40 years ago.

David J. Wlody, M.D., is Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Long Island College Hospital, Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Anesthesiology, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York. He is SOAP President.