Update From the Chair of the Section on Anesthesiology, the American Academy of Pediatrics
By Anita Honkanen, MD
Clinical Professor
Stanford University
I am happy to report that the AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine is as active as ever working to review policy, advocate in the interests of children, and educate our patients, families, and medical colleagues on issues related to anesthesia and pain medicine. As always, we welcome new members, and urge all members to become involved in the activities of the section. Not only will it allow you to develop a voice in advocacy of your own, it is a great way to connect to colleagues around the nation and in other areas of medicine.
At the 2019 AAP National Conference and Exhibition in October, the Section offered a program on Integrative Approaches to Pain: Non-Pharmacologic, Non-Invasive Options Amid the Opioid Crisis, a collaboration with the Section on International Child Health and the Section on Integrative Medicine, as well as a program on Pediatric Pain Management for Hospitalists: A Life Course Perspective, a collaboration with the Section on Hospital Medicine. In addition, the Section had the honor of hosting this year’s AAP Pediatrics for the 21st Century Conference (Peds-21): Opioids Through the Ages: Caring for Children and Families in the Wake of the Opioid Crisis. The Peds-21 program can be viewed in full online here. There was a robust abstract session at the Peds-21 Conference with approximately 50 poster presentations; abstracts will be published in Pediatrics in the coming months and when available, they will be accessible here.
The AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine offers a platform for educating our colleagues in general pediatrics. Several members have made great efforts in those venues recently. An article by Dr. Justin Long, “Delay or Proceed? What to do When Patient gets URI Before Undergoing Anesthesia” recently appeared in AAP News. In addition, Dr. Justin Long and Dr. Franklyn Cladis presented a session at this year’s AAP National Conference on “What Pediatricians Should Know About Anesthesia Risk and Preoperative Clinics”. Dr. Rita Agarwal, working through the local California Chapter of the AAP, was interviewed for the Podcast Peds Rap, reviewing issues related to opioids in children. You can listen to the podcasts by clicking this link: http://pedsrap.com/promotion/pedsdecember-rita. And Dr. Mary Landrigan-Ossar made her debut as an AAP National Conference speaker this year with a session on how to counsel patients who require pediatric dental and procedural sedation. The Section also remains active in advocating at the state and national level for adoption of AAP and ASA approved guidelines that outline the elements needed for safe administration of sedation in the dental and oral surgical office settings.
The call for proposals for the AAP’s 2021 National Conference will be issued in February 2020 with an April deadline; members are encouraged to submit proposals. If you are interested in submitting an educational proposal with Section sponsorship, please send a request to Anita Honkanen, Chair or Jennifer Riefe, Section Manager, by email to honkanen@stanford.edu and/or jriefe@aap.org.
The Fall 2019 AAP SOA newsletter is available here. Some highlights from this edition include news on the election of a section member to the AAP Board of Directors; for the first time in more than 75 years the AAP has added three new at-large positions to the Board of Directors, specifically designated for medical and surgical subspecialists. We are extremely pleased that after an election involving the entire AAP membership, Section member Constance S. Houck, MD, MPH, FAAP was elected to a 4-year term on the AAP Board of Directors beginning January 2020. Dr. Houck, who has served as the Chair of the AAP’s Surgical Advisory Panel as well as Chair of the Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, will now represent all of the surgical sections as a voting member of the Board.
If you take some time to page through our newsletter, you will note the many references to AAP publications put out by other committees, councils, and sections of the AAP that are pertinent to our practice; Pediatrics has a wealth of articles of interest to us (for example, “Criteria for Critical Care of Infants and Children: PICU Admission, Discharge, and Triage Practice Statement and Levels of Care Guidance”). Also announced in the Fall newsletter was the 2020 Robert M. Smith award winner; next year’s award will be presented to Dr. Jay Deshpande. Congratulations Jay!
Finally, the AAP is the leading child health advocacy organization in the U.S., working tirelessly on behalf of our patients. The most current AAP Academic and Subspecialty Advocacy Report can be viewed here. The AAP is leading the way on emerging key advocacy topics, most recently vaping. The AAP has urged the Trump administration to stand strong and implement a plan to clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes; for more on this, see AAP press release. And for those interested in ensuring children are treated only when needed, as part of the national Choosing Wisely® campaign, procedures and tests related to pediatric surgery that may be over-utilized or unnecessary has been developed by the AAP. To see the top five topics, you can click HERE.
And again, new members are more than welcome (click here to access application) and please feel free to contact Anita Honkanen, Section Chair and/or Jennifer Riefe, Section Manager, if interested in becoming actively involved in ongoing efforts.
