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Introduction
Dr. Charles Coté: This is Dr. Charles Coté with AnesthesiaWeb.com. We're at the American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting in San Francisco. I have with me today Dr. Peter Davis who is chairman of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and the current president of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. I thought it would be interesting to find out the goals of the Society in these coming years and how Dr. Davis sees that organization proceeding in the future.
Goals of the Society
Dr. Peter Davis: Thank you, Charlie. It's a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to have this opportunity to tell people about the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia.
As you know, the Society is made up of over 4000 members. Most of them are anesthesiologists out in practice and the remainder of them are anesthesia residents. The Society has a number of goals. One of the goals is a research mission. Another of its goals is an educational mission. And finally, it has an advocacy goal that it does in conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The educational component of the Society has a meeting component to it, with two meetings a year. One of the meetings is just for the ASA. It's a one-day meeting. And a second meeting of the year is usually in the wintertime and it's a three-day meeting. And the goals of these meetings are really to educate practicing anesthesiologists and healthcare providers of pediatric anesthesia in the safe practice of pediatric anesthesia. The research mission of the Society really involves trying to ask some of the basic questions of where the organization of pediatric anesthesia people should be heading. That is, what are the important issues? What questions need to be answered? How can children be taken care of in a better way?
And finally, through its liaison with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society also has an advocacy role. And though uniting with the American Academy of Pediatrics, it's able to conduct some of the issues that are important for both patient safety as well as for anesthesia personnel safety.
Advocacy Role
Dr. Charles Coté: Peter, could you expand a little bit on what you mean by the advocacy issues and working with the Academy of Pediatrics?
Dr. Peter Davis: Well, I think when one provides healthcare for children, one needs to be cognizant of not just providing the actually, physical part of it but also the policy part of healthcare for children. And the AAP has been a longstanding institution whose major mission and goal has been pediatric advocacy. And the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia has partnered with the AAP in this regard. And so, it's combining, in a sense, the best of both forces for the common good of children.
Conclusion
Dr. Charles Coté: Thank you, Peter, for clarifying the interactions between these two organizations: the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the American Academy of Pediatrics section on anesthesiology. We both really have the same goal, which is improving things for children and I think this partnership provides us both with a wonderful opportunity to make things better for children. This is Dr. Charles Coté, with Peter Davis in San Francisco for AnesthesiaWeb.com.
