SPPM Off to a Fantastic Start
By Anjana Kundu, MBBS, DA
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH
It is with great pleasure that I offer the second edition of the newsletter for the Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine (SPPM). It is a tall order to follow suit with Rita Agarwal MD, Children’s Hospital Colorado, launching our first edition in March 2014. However, with fantastic leadership from the Society’s president, Dr. Sabine Kost-Byerly, The John Hopkins Hospital, we successfully transitioned from Special Interest Group to Society status. The SPPM is off to a fantastic start with 177 members, 113 international members, and 114 fellowship trainee members.
This success has been further enhanced with SPPM hosting its first Annual Meeting on March 6, 2014 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL chaired by Dr. Petra Meier Haran, Boston Children’s Hospital, with an impressive lineup of topics and renowned faculty. The registration for this meeting surpassed our expectations with a generous attendance including international members.
The SPA spring newsletter highlighted some of the high profile speakers and sessions featuring pediatric pain medicine and regional anesthesia. This edition of the newsletter kicks of with the president’s note about elections to select the Executive Committee and At-Large Directors for the SPPM Board of Directors and in-depth reviews of the sessions, workshops, debate, and SPA poster sessions. It also features an excellent review of the Annual Meeting by Sophie R. Pestieau, MD from Children's National Health Systems Washington, DC; and a very comprehensive review of the highlights from the poster sessions by Elizabeth Cudilo MD, Vidya Chidambaran MD from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center. An additional feature is a review of the PBLD by Dr Alexandra Szabova and John B Rose, MD also from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center.
The SPA has created a task force to reach expert consensus statement and guidelines for safe use of opioids among pediatric patients. This task force led by Joseph Cravero, MD, Boston Children’s Hospital and includes several other SPPM members Sabine Kost-Byerly, Rita Agarwal, Jeffery Gallinkin, Robert Wilder and I, is a perfect example of how the SPPM initiatives and leadership put the society’s mission to practice.
To quote Rita Agarwal, “We will need lots of help. We want all your fantastic ideas and contributions.” So, please keep it coming and keep contributing!
Enjoy this edition of the SPPM Newsletter and get ready for the board of directors nominations and elections this summer.
Happy summer!
