Dear Subspecialty Program Director:

Welcome to the AASPD website!  We hope that this will be a place that you return to often, as you appreciate more and more the benefits of networking with our colleagues in our other subspecialties.

The mission of the AASPD can be outlined as follows:

1. To provide a “home” where Program Directors of ACGME-accredited subspecialty fellowships (currently Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Pain Medicine and Pediatric Anesthesiology) can interact to discuss, evaluate and act on matters of common interest.

2. To provide a milieu where Program Directors within their own subspecialty can generate ideas that they can share with the other subspecialties

3. To encourage access and exposure to, and exchange of ideas with, Departmental Chairs and Core Program Directors at the SAAA Annual Meeting

I am sure that many of you who attended the first two SAAA Annual Meetings, in Boston (2009) and Washington, DC (2010) came away as energized as I did, with fresh ideas and perspectives on all aspects of graduate medical education.  Indeed, something must be working, because from 2009 to 2011, overall membership of AASPD increased from 125 to 176 programs!  Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology increased from 33 to 43, Critical Care from 24 to 35, Pain Medicine from 40 to 59 and Pediatric Anesthesiology from 28 to 39 programs respectively. 

The 2011 SAAA Annual Meeting will take place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Denver, Colorado, from November 4-6 and looks like continuing the enterprising and informative format that was so successful in 2009 and 2010.  The first day (Friday, November 4) will be dedicated as before to three separate, concurrent programs for AAAC, AACPD and AASPD. 

The AASPD program has been designed to address topical concerns common to all subspecialties.  We will have an audience participation system in place to promote as much interaction and opinion generation as possible. 

The morning session will kick off with three prominent Department Chairs, Warren Sandberg (Vanderbilt), Margaret Wood (Columbia) and David Brown (Cleveland Clinic) giving us some feedback on how successful (or not) our fellowship programs are in training future faculty.  None of these three Chairs are known for their reluctance to speak their minds so this should be a lively session!  Then, Linda Mason (Loma Linda) and Neal Cohen (UCSF) will shed some light on the new 2011 RRC Program Requirements, and how they impact our subspecialties.  

The year 2011 also saw the first (very successful) Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship Match, and Nancy Glass (Texas Children’s Hospital) will share their experience, which may be very helpful to the other subspecialties in their decision-making on this controversial topic.  In the last session of the morning, Robert Gaiser (U Penn) will provoke us with some outspoken thoughts on how we might apply Adult Learning Principles to our fellowship education.

During the lunch hour we have invited the subspecialty Program Director Committees to hold their meetings on site.  We hope that this further encourages interchange between AASPD and the subspecialty organizations.

After lunch, we will break out into our subspecialty components for closed sessions to discuss current and pertinent issues.  These breakout sessions will be led by Gary Brenner (MGH) for Pain Medicine, Benjamin Kohl (U Penn) for Critical Care, Scott Walker (Indiana University) for Pediatric Anesthesiology and Jack Shanewise (Columbia) for Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology.  In the last session of the day we will reconvene for the AASPD 2011 Business Meeting, during which each of the subspecialty moderators will report back from their breakout sessions to a reconvened plenary session.

On Saturday November 5 and Sunday morning November 6 we will join forces with the AAAC and AACPD for what looks like a stimulating and educational program, which you can access here.

You may be aware that Linda Mason was appointed as the founding President of AASPD and served as its only official member from November 2008 through November 2009!  During this time she single-handedly drummed up enthusiasm and membership for AASPD, resulting in its initial successful meeting at the end of 2009 and its ongoing growth in the nearly two years since.  Dr. Mason will continue to serve as Past President until November 2012.  Nancy Glass is President-Elect and will likewise serve as such until November 2012. 

As you have seen in your e-mail, the Secretary of AASPD, Joseph Layon (University of Miami) is taking another position and will step down from AASPD this September.  We are conducting a replacement election on-line for a new Secretary, who will serve from November 2011 through 2013.  Please take advantage of your prerogative to nominate “write-in” candidates, and please review the bios of the two candidates nominated by Council, Gary Brenner and Jack Shanewise. 

Depending on the results of the election for Secretary, all four of our current Council members will be up for re-election at our 2011 Business Meeting on November 4.  These include: for Pain Medicine, Gary Brenner and Charles Brock (USF), and for Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, Jack Shanewise and Mark Stafford-Smith (Duke).  Additional nominations from the Floor will be invited at that time.

I will continue to use the President’s Message as a bully pulpit for AASPD and plan to update it on a regular basis.  Please let us hear from you!  We invite your comments and suggestions, especially on ways in which you think AASPD could be more helpful to you, your program, your colleagues, and most important of all, your Fellows.  Please send all your comments to Nicole Bradle at N.Bradle@asahq.org.

With kind regards,

Robert N. Sladen, M.B.,Ch.B., F.C.C.M.
President, AASPD 2010-2012.