Now is time for anesthesiologists to lead the way to gender equity and patient safety. Not despite all of the disruptions that have occurred in 2020, but because of them. “The pandemic is an example of what broad disruption looks like. It has changed our lives,” said Joanne M. Conroy, MD, President and CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, during yesterday’s Rovenstine Lecture.

In yesterday’s John W. Severinghaus Lecture on Translational Science, Beverley Orser, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FRSC, of the University of Toronto, encouraged anesthesiologists to reset their sights on long-term outcomes. It’s her answer to the question of how we, as anesthesiologists, can achieve our full potential.

It’s the last day of ANESTHESIOLOGY 2020, but a full day of educational panels, Corporate Partner sessions, networking, and governance activities awaits you.

Up to 40% of patients presenting to the emergency department may have an intoxication, but they’re not always easy to recognize. It’s important for anesthesiologists to know that there are really very few intoxications that have classic toxidromes, said Robert W. Gould, MD, Chief of Critical Care Anesthesiology and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The Choosing Wisely campaign continues to bring improvements to health care and even shape today’s medical students who will carry out the campaign’s mission well into the future. The state of the global initiative, now eight years strong, was the focus of the Sunday session “Choosing Wisely in 2020: A Global Perspective.”

News of clinical trials has captured the attention of the general public for months, as COVID-19 vaccines advance at record pace. That same thirst for knowledge is expected to captivate seasoned clinicians attending the annual meeting who already have a moderate to advanced understanding of clinical trials in anesthesiology.

Protecting maternal health is a priority of health care providers worldwide. Despite that, maternal morbidity and mortality rates are on the rise, even in the United States. Rachel M. Kacmar, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, will address this health crisis during Monday’s session “Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: An Anesthesiologist’s Role and Perspective.”

We hope you agree that ANESTHESIOLOGY 2020 offered more ways to converse with more colleagues than any meeting before it. We’re pleased to inform you that you can extend those conversations, and much more, with our new ASA Community – an easy-to-use networking tool where you can tap into the collective knowledge of our 50,000-plus membership.

Perioperative infections are always a concern for anesthesiologists. Now, in the presence of COVID-19, even more effort and energy are being directed at this topic as anesthesiologists lead multidisciplinary initiatives to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAI) by PPE, hand sanitation, and OR procedures.

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, said in yesterday’s opening session that he’s got a “smorgasbord of issues” he’s been wanting to discuss with anesthesiologists. In what he dubbed a “romp through the NIH,” Dr. Collins walked the audience through NIH biomedical research updates in categories that included advancing neurotechnology, the opioid crisis, the need for a more diverse and innovative research workforce, and COVID-19.