I hope that each of you is planning to attend the 32nd annual meeting in Montreal. Program Chair Alan Santos, MD, and Meeting Host Andrew Harris, MD, have planned an outstanding meeting. They have retained all the popular, traditional program activities - while adding new components, including refresher course lectures, a scientific session devoted to work in progress, and an address by ASA President, Ronald A. MacKenzie, DO.
In the Winter Newsletter, I announced that the Board of Directors has recommended that SOAP give a Distinguished Service Award each year, beginning with the 2000 Annual Meeting in Montreal. The Board of Directors has unanimously voted to give the first SOAP Distinguished Service Award to our beloved friend and colleague, Dr. Gertie Marx. We will present the Distinguished Service Award to Gertie at the annual meeting banquet in Montreal, and I encourage each of you to attend. It will be a special occasion.
In the Winter Newsletter, I announced the appointment of Dr. Eddie Molina-Lamas as Chair of an ad hoc SOAP Committee on Performance and Outcomes Measurement. Most of you are aware that most specialty societies and boards are actively discussing issues related to assessment of physician competence, performance, and maintenance of certification. These discussions have stemmed, in part, from growing pressure from regulatory agencies, third-party payers, and the lay public. In the November, 1999 issue of the ASA Newsletter, Ron Gabel, MD, Chair of the ASA Committee on Performance-Based Credentialing (soon to be renamed the Committee on Performance and Outcomes Measurement) stated:
"If you are under the age of 60 and are not contemplating early retirement, there is a reasonable likelihood that you will be required to participate in a performance measurement program during your professional career. (Please do not shoot the messenger.)"
How can/should we measure competence and performance for physicians who provide obstetric anesthesia care? As a first step to assessment of performance, the ASA Committee on Performance-Based Credentialing intends to work with ASA-affiliated subspecialty societies to develop models for clinical databases. Dr. Patsy Dailey, SOAP's delegate to the ASA House of Delegates, is a member of the ASA Committee on Performance-Based Credentialing. I encourage you to give these issues careful thought, and to forward your ideas and suggestions to Dr. Dailey, Dr. Molina-Lamas, and me.
This represents the last issue of the SOAP Newsletter prepared by Dr. Gerry Burger, who has ably served as Newsletter Editor for the last three years. Gerry has done an outstanding job, and I hope that you will join me in expressing heartfelt gratitude for his excellent work. The Newsletter Editor is appointed by the President, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors. After consultation with the Board, I am pleased to announce the appointment of David Wlody, MD, to succeed Dr. Burger as Newsletter Editor. I am delighted that David has accepted this responsibility, and I know that he will do a wonderful job.
Finally, I should like to say that it has been a privilege and a joy for me to serve as your President this past year. SOAP is a wonderful, thriving society - an international family of individuals devoted to the provision and improvement of quality anesthesia care for pregnant women. Ours is not the largest subspecialty society - but it is the best!
Again, I hope that each of you will make plans to attend the 32nd annual meeting in Montreal. Let's fill the banquet hall for the presentation of the first SOAP Distinguished Service Award to Gertie Marx.
David H. Chestnut, MD
President