July, 2023
Hello FSA Members,
At the close of our 2023 Annual Meeting in June, I was honored to take the role of your FSA President. I know we’re going to have a productive year for the Society and wanted to share with you some plans and highlights.
First, I want to welcome our newest FSA officer, Dr. Sher-Lu Pai, who was elected as your Assistant Treasurer at the June Business meeting. Dr. Pai has been extremely engaged with the Society, serving in leadership roles for both the Communications and Professional Diversity Committee, as well as a Delegate to the ASA and FMA – she is an exceptional addition to our leadership group and I look forward to working with her this year.
The 2023 Annual Meeting was a great success. Please visit the FSA 2023 Meeting recap page to see photos, award winners, and other updates from the meeting. New additions to the meeting this year included a specific Resident Track on Saturday, offering sessions on employment considerations, anesthesia payments and working with an anesthesia care team. We were pleased to collaborate on this track with our colleagues from the Florida Anesthesia Administrators Association and the Florida Academy of Anesthesiology Assistants. Congratulations to our 2023 Distinguished Service Award recipient, Jon Johnson of our long-time lobbying firm Johnson & Blanton, and to our Presidential Engagement Award recipients, Drs. Moeed Azam and Paul Anderson.
Our legislative term for 2023 was especially busy, and once again, we took a group to Tallahassee during session to meet with our legislators and continue advocating for safe, physician-led anesthesia. After several years of doing battle in the Florida legislature over nomenclature safety in medical settings, we were part of a team that helped pass the so-called “Ologist” bill; a measure that would have added clarity to titles and their use in medical settings. We believe that title confusion can be, and often is, a serious safety issue in many medical settings; clarifying who is and who is not a medical “doctor” is an important change to the law. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed the bill despite overwhelming support from the House and Senate. As we move into 2024, we will work to address his concerns and hopefully pass this important legislation again and, hopefully, avoid the veto pen.
I encourage you to get involved with your Society. We have several active committees, including our newest, the Critical Care Committee, under the leadership of Dr. Steve Minear. We have a very robust legislative affairs committee and organize annual legislative trips to both Tallahassee and Washington, DC. We send delegations each year to the annual meetings of the Florida Medical Association and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. We’re working to better engage with our Florida anesthesiology residency programs and medical students interested in a career in Anesthesiology. Plenty of opportunities to get involved, so it isn’t hard to find ways to engage with your Society!
