1. Overview

The Society for Pediatric Anesthesia 39th Annual Meeting 2025 provides a comprehensive update on pediatric anesthesiology, addressing clinical innovations, patient safety, workforce challenges, and physician well-being. The program explores ambulatory surgery selection, crisis readiness through simulation, social determinants of health, and leadership within the perioperative setting.

The SPA 39th Annual Meeting will focus on topics of interest to those who provide anesthesia, sedation, pain management, and critical care services to infants and children. The overall goals for attendees of the program are to reinforce and enhance their existing fund of knowledge, and to introduce them to new and state-of-the-art techniques and information that affect their practice and improve the perioperative/critical care of pediatric patients.

Course Date: 2025

2. Learning Objectives

• Evaluate evidence-based criteria for safely selecting appropriate pediatric patients and procedures for ambulatory surgery centers.

• Implement strategies to enhance psychological safety, physician well-being, and crisis readiness through targeted simulation training.

• Analyze the metabolic effects of anesthetics on the developing myocardium and optimize the perioperative care of external ventricular drains.

• Assess the impact of social determinants of health on pediatric anesthesia care and surgical outcomes.

• Formulate proactive approaches to address current workforce challenges, fellowship recruitment, and intelligent practice management.

3. Target Audience

4. Topics

1. 01 Making it Safe- The Importance of Psychological Safety for Healthcare Professionals

2. 02 Ambulatory Surgery Centers- How Do We Select Appropriate Pediatric Patients, Surgeries, and Procedures

3. 03 Beyond the OR- How Social Determinants Shape Pediatric Anesthesia Care

4. 04 Learning From Our Experiences- The Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (AIRS)

5. 05 Safe to Fail, Trained to Save- Pediatric Crisis Readiness Through Simulation

6. 06 Both Sides Now- A Retiring Academic Pediatric Anesthesiologist Looks Backward and Forward

7. 07 Metabolic Effects of Anesthetics on the Developing Myocardium

8. 08 Looking back – The Most Read Pediatric Anesthesia Papers

9. 09 Lessons in Leadership – Random Thoughts on Leadership from the Operating Room to the Board Room

10. 10 Empowering Today’s Physician- The Pros and Cons of Unionization

11. 11 Why Aren’t They Choosing Peds. Rethinking Fellowship Recruitment in Anesthesiology

12. 12 Perioperative and Acute Setting Clinicians- The Case for Leading the Well-being Charge!

13. 13 Voice, Value, and Vision- Rethinking Success in Anesthesiology Via Intelligent Practice Management

14. 14 SPA as a Force for Good- Supporting Local Communities at Our Meetings

15. 15 Suicidal Ideation- The Road to Recovery is Not Alone

16. 16 The Latin American Surgical Outcomes Study in Pediatrics (LASOS-Peds)

17. 17 Navigating the Ventricular System- Perioperative Care of External Ventricular Drains

18. 18 Just-in-time Coaching for Novice Infant Airway Management- Reducing Cognitive Load

19. October 10, 2025

20. SESSION I- Keynote

21. SESSION II- Safe Spaces for Our Patients

22. SESSION III- Pediatric Anesthesia Updates

23. SESSION IV- Myron Yaster Lifetime Achievement Award Presentation

24. SESSION V- The Future of the Pediatric Anesthesia Workforce

25. SESSION VI- PEDx