By Pamela Finch
This year's annual Midwest Anesthesia Resident's Conference was hosted by the U-M, Department of Anesthesiology. Over 450 guests registered for the meeting that was held on campus at the Michigan League Building. The co-directors, Drs. Theodore Sanford and Paul Reynolds, both received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the meeting. The college town atmosphere was a welcomed change for the conference and the tailgate party given on Saturday night, only enhanced the collegiate spirit among the residents and faculty from 10 states across the Midwest.
The keynote speaker during Saturday's luncheon, Dr. Michael Roizen, from the University of Chicago, presented a lecture entitled, "The Future of Anesthesia in the Managed Care Environment. The Only Reason We Cannot be the Perioperative Care Specialist is the Limits of Our Imagination and Desire to Work." His talk gave insight and hope to future Anesthesiologists. Furthermore, he introduced the concept of the Anesthesiologist functioning as the "Perioperative Physician" as we approach the year 2000.
The department received 198 abstracts from 28 different schools. Our own residents submitted 24, or 12% of the abstracts. The excellent participation level was due, in large part, to our devoted faculty mentors. Out of 20 awards given during Sunday's ceremony, our own Drs. John Huntington, Jeffrey Marshall, and Bridget Whelton, received recognition for their presentations.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the MARC planning committee members and staff who spent many hours making this conference a success.