The Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA) is an honorific organization, which provides a home to leaders in academic anesthesiology. Although it is honorific, then AUA is also actively engaged in activities intended to safeguard anesthesiology as a dynamic academic medical specialty, with a vibrant community of successful scientific, educational and medical leaders. One cardinal new goal that the AUA is embracing, is leadership development within our field.

In an effort to increase representativeness among our members, to promote diversity and inclusivity, and to engage members across the academic community, AUA leadership initiated earlier this year a task force on diversity, equity, and inclusivity.

The Educational Advisory Board (EAB) was delighted with the 2019 AUA/IARS/SOCCA annual meeting held in Montreal, Canada this past May. Numerous features contributed to the success of the meeting.

Once again, AUA sponsored a science-focused, well-attended symposium at the IARS annual meeting. This year’s symposium “Anesthesia and Consciousness”, which was presented in Montreal on May 18, 2019, brought together an outstanding panel of experts to discuss how investigations of the anesthetized state inform our understanding of the nature and substance of consciousness. Audience members were treated to reviews of the cortical correlates of consciousness and of sensory awareness, learned about the neurobiology of arousal, and were introduced to the use of network motifs to assess awareness in disorders of consciousness.

The morning session on May 16 was moderated by SAB Chair Ines Koerner, MD, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University and Richard Levy, MD, FAAP, Columbia University and featured two presentations.

The Scientific Advisory Board requested applications earlier this year for new members to fill four open positions. We were honored to receive a record number of outstanding applications in response. The SAB is proud to welcome the following new members, who start their three-year terms this summer

The first host program was moderated by Pierre Beaulieu, MD, PhD, FRCA, University of Montreal, and included “The Analgesic Power of Music” by Isabelle Pertez, PhD, University of Montreal, and “Computerized Clinical Decision Support for the Management of Critically Ill Patients” by Philippe Jouvet, MD, PhD, FRCA, University of Montreal.

The President’s Lunch featured Bruce Biccard, MD, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, on “The Innovation of ASOS”; Julie K. Freed, MD, PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin, on “Fundamental Scientist in Anesthesiology”; Jessica Spence, MD, McMaster University, on “Clinical Outcomes Scientist in Anesthesiology”; and Phillip Vlisides, MD, University of Michigan Medicine, on “Translational Scientist in Anesthesiology.”

Junior Faculty Research Award – Behrouz Ashrafi, MD, University of Miami: Total Intravenous Anesthesia with a Novel Formulation of Isoflurane Perfluorocarbon-based Nano-emulsion: Safety, Efficacy and Toxicity in Dogs.

If you have an idea for an article, an announcement, or an opinion on a recently published article, please submit your proposal/article to Dr. Lisa Wise-Faberowski, MD, lwf1212@stanford.edu before Thursday, November 7, 2019. If your article is selected, we will contact you for editing and formatting!