WASHINGTON D.C. 2012, AN ASA BUFFET
ASA Director Report
The American Society of Anesthesiologists’ 2012 Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C. from October 12-17. There were 14,570 registered attendees, which represented a slight decrease from the 2011 Annual Meeting in Chicago. The majority of members of the Texas Delegation were housed at the Washington Renaissance Hotel that is directly across the street from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
The Meeting began on Saturday morning with an Opening Session and featured a welcome to the District of Columbia by Dr. Andy Harris of Maryland, the first and only anesthesiologist to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. Jerry Cohen spoke extensively about his past year as ASA President within the context of implementation and challenges to “health care reform”, the ACA.
The highlight of the session undoubtedly was Dr. Jane Fitch’s (ASA 1st Vice President) “interview” of the renowned political pundits Mary Matalin and James Carville. They gave a spirited and humorous recap of recent political events with personal insights into the upcoming election and a few predictions of the winners for President, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Dr. John Zerwas concluded the Session detailing the growth of the Society to current numbers of just over 48,000 members.
Subsequently, the 2nd annual winner of the Nicholas Green Global Humanitarianism Award (for 2012) was awarded to Dr. Angela Enright for her outstanding work in leading missionary trips to Africa. That was followed by the 1st Annual ASA/APSF Ellison C. Pierce Lecture, given by Dr. Donald Berwick, Former Acting CMS Administrator, with a talk titled “Anesthesiologists Can Continue to Lead on Patient Safety”.
The ASA Delegates and the Alternate Delegates of the TSA met for the Texas Caucus on the afternoon of Saturday, October 13th to review the handbook and discuss the ASA elections. The work was divided among reference committee sub‐groups with Drs. Crystal C.Wright, Amr E. Abouleish, Evan G. Pivalizza, and Vincent G. Nelson chairing these groups. Dr. Scott Kercheville served as Director and Dr. Patrick Giam served as Alternate Director.
The members moved onto the Western Caucus for further deliberations and discussions. Dr. Scott Kercheville served as Secretary of the Western Caucus.
Dr. Jerry Cohen, ASA President, called the first Session of the House of Delegates to order at 8:00 AM on Sunday, October 14th at the Convention Center. After recognizing the former ASA Presidents in attendance, he then presented the winners of the Resident’s Research Essay Contest and the FAER Resident Scholars. Dr. John Dombrowski presented the Philip S. Weintraub Media Awards. The President then recognized the retiring members of the Board of Directors to be acknowledged by the entire House of Delegates.
Scott E. Kercheville, MD
TSA Past President
ASA Director District 19
Dr. Jeff T. Mueller, Chair of the ASAPAC, presented the final numbers for contributionsto the PAC for 2011‐12. Continuing the recent history, the ASAPAC remains the #1 physician PAC for the calendar year 2012, and set two overall records for total contributions of greater than $1.8 million and a 20.3% participation rate for all members. The state with the largest total contributions for the second year in a row was Florida with a new single year record of $199K, breaking the previous record set by Texas in 2009 of $184K. Texas finished 4th in total contributions with just over $100K for the year. Of the 28 residency programs in the country with 100% participation rate, three were in Texas (Texas A&M/Scott & White, UTMB and UT Houston).
Dr. Cohen then introduced the ASA Interim CEO, Dr. Barbara Fossum, who gave a detailed summary of the staffing and administrative changes within the Park Ridge and Washington Offices. Her focus has been preparing the organization for the transition to a permanent single CEO operating model and to continue service to the members without interruption.
Per ASA House tradition, Dr. Cohen turned the meeting over to the Speaker, Dr. J. P. Abenstein who then began the normal business of the House including the adoption of the Minutes for 2011 and the announcements for the Session. Dr. Jerry Cohen followed with his Presidential Address detailing again the changes to the two ASA offices and the search for a permanent CEO to lead the organization. He reiterated his concerns about the persistent challenges to the practice of anesthesiology by lesser‐licensed providers who misinform the
Texas Delegation to the ASA 2012 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
