2021 | Fall Issue

As we all weather the personal and professional storm created by the COVID Pandemic, I would like to thank you for your continued support of the AUA mission and vision.  While many of us look forward to a return of our lives to normal, the reality of “normal” is also unclear.

Please click the link below to read the EAB Annual Report.

October marks the two-year anniversary of the Leadership Advisory Board, created by the vision of AUA Past President, Dr. Jeanine Wiener-Kronish, and with the support of the AUA Council and leadership. The Leadership Advisory Board (LAB) evolved as a response to two challenges: the perceived lack of diversity among AUA members, and the recognized need for mentorship and sponsorship in academic anesthesiology. In May 2019, a nucleus of AUA members, led by Dr. Wiener-Kronish, started the conversation around diversity within our association. In October, the need and overall vision for the LAB was proposed to the AUA council.

2021 AUA Virtual Meeting: SAB members reviewed 270 abstracts submitted to the 2021 AUA annual meeting and selected 260 for presentation. Eight outstanding abstracts were selected for presentation in two hour-long oral sessions and recognized with different awards. In order to maximize exchange and conversation in the virtual environment, we selected an additional 60 high-scoring abstracts that were presented as short oral presentations in parallel sessions moderated by SAB members. The remaining abstracts were presented on a virtual poster board with chat functionality to encourage discussion. The short oral presentation format provided excellent conditions to discuss the science, as all audience members could view the data presented and engage in the discussion without the limits of noise and visibility often encountered in traditional poster board discussions. We plan to maintain this virtual short oral presentation format for the 2022 hybrid annual meeting to provide an optimal poster discussion experience for all attendees, virtual or in-person. Senior AUA members will be invited to join the discussions and provide feedback to the presenters. SAB members also served as moderators for several of the excellent networking sessions during the AUA 2021 annual meeting.

Matching Talented Junior Faculty Speakers with Dynamic Venues: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted scientific conferences, travel, and exchange. Opportunities to present at other institutions, meet future collaborators and sponsors, and receive constructive feedback have been limited. This disruption hit junior faculty members, who are building their CVs and do not yet have established networks, particularly hard. The AUA Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) has launched a virtual speaker exchange platform to counteract this disruption. We aim to use new technologies to support continued sharing of academic work and engaging in cross-institutional communication and collaboration. The speaker exchange will facilitate virtual or remote presentations to enhance the flow of academic knowledge within our specialty and provide an ongoing opportunity for speaking engagements that do not require the time and material resources for travel. Even as lecture series are beginning to return to in-person presentations, these remote engagements will provide a widely accessible and lasting alternative to more traditional speaking engagements, which will be helpful as clinical pressures increase.

AUA Active Members have an opportunity to nominate a colleague, or submit a self-nomination, for the following positions on the AUA Council: Secretary (serves 2-year term as Secretary, 2-year term as President-Elect, 2-year term as President, and 2-year term as Past President for a total 8-year term); Treasurer (serves 3-year term); (2) Councilor-at-Large (serves 3-year term)

Are you looking for a way to share your passion, leadership, and commitment to the academic anesthesia community and the AUA? Are you interested in guiding and leading the next generation of leaders in academic anesthesia? Volunteer with the AUA today! Applications for the Boards and Committee are open this year from November 1 until December 5 at 11:59 pm PT.

On behalf of the AUA Strategic Planning Task Force, members: Vivian Abalama, IOM, CAE; Jeff Kirsch, MD; Dolores Njoku, MD; Monica S. Vavilala, MD; and Jeanine Weiner-Kronish, MD. Starting in early 2021, the AUA Council engaged in a formal strategic planning process to chart the future course of the organization. One important goal was to ensure sustainability of the AUA within the dynamic community of academic anesthesiology.

Before the pandemic there was an unspoken fact: being a woman in academics meant that you were taken less seriously. However, there are several examples of courage, brilliance, and commitment such as in the accomplishments of Dr. Virginia Apgar, among others.