here can you discuss the management of challenging patients in a small-group interactive setting? Would you like to talk about anesthetic options for a new procedure with which your hospital or group is faced? Do you need a quick refresher on something you haven’t done or seen in a while or want to hone your decision-making skills when dealing with patients in a specific specialty area? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then the Problem-Based Learning Discussion (PBLD) program is for you.

Converse about drug-eluting stents, disaster preparedness, awake craniotomies, massive hemorrhage in obstetric patients or interventional pain management treatments, and have some breakfast. Join us for a mid-morning or mid-day snack and consider laparoscopic gastric bypass in the adolescent, safety in the MRI center, the endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms or pain management strategies for drug-addicted patients. Have lunch and learn about simulation in anesthesia education, improving the perioperative experience for the pediatric patient, updates in the treatment of stridor, ventricular assist devices or caring for the parturient with cardiomyopathy. There is something for everyone among this year’s offerings.

The PBLD program continues to expand to meet the needs and requests of our membership. Again, there were a record number of unsolicited cases that were evaluated by members of the Committee on Problem-Based Learning Discussions. In order to include more of the superb and unique discussions, the total number of offerings will be more than 150 — the majority of which will be presented for the first time!

We will be presenting each case twice during the meeting to enhance the opportunities for ASA members to attend sessions of their choice. Although all of the cases are now designated as being aligned with the goals and objectives of one of the tracks, attendees are encouraged to “shop around” and choose cases that meet their continuing medical education and Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology needs.

The lower-cost 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. beverage sessions will continue to be offered along with the traditional 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. breakfast and 12 noon to 1:45 p.m. lunch forums. Sessions will be held in rooms 3002-3008 in Moscone Center.

Those who purchase PBLD tickets through preregistration will receive the objectives, a case with leading questions and a focused reference list so that they have the opportunity to develop their own approach to the clinical problem prior to the meeting. Premeeting preparation encourages involvement and helps each session to become a truly interactive discussion. Every registrant also will receive a CD-ROM that contains the entire PBLD program. We have mandated that the model discussions occur in an expanded form. This increased scholarship of the discussions allows those not present at a session to understand the objectives and salient issues involved in the case, as this promotes use of the cases as a teaching tool.

For those of you who have enjoyed the PBLD program since it was introduced in 1991, we invite you to sample some of the many new offerings — and for those yet to experience problem-based learning, please consider joining us in San Francisco.

Meg A. Rosenblatt, M.D., is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Orthopaedics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York.