Thomas Davis, MD
The new year brings about reflections of our past year and goals for the next. Just as many of us have personal goals for the new year, we at the Southern Pain Society (SPS) have new goals. As we have since 1989 we are planning this year’s annual meeting: The 38 Annual Meeting at the Westin Hotel New Orleans Sept 20- 22, 2024.
Each year we at SPS review strengths and weaknesses from our past meeting and year. This is where the input from our speakers, members, and vendors is so helpful. We try to remain mindful of the newest innovations and concerns in pain medicine. Because we represent so many diverse practice backgrounds at Southern Pain Society, we try to reflect this in our meetings. It is our goal that everyone can come away from our meetings and return to their practices with new perspectives to advance pain management and improve patient lives.
Successes for this past year include our first cadaver workshop, special thanks to Boston Scientific for their sponsorship, and board member Casey Murphy MD and executive director Lori Postal for helping us add these great experiences to the annual meeting. Other successes were the engaging speakers and lively personal interactions between attendees, vendors and speakers. We believe we can expand next year with an additional bonus session that will focus on a specific theme. Stay tuned for this announcement.
Additional areas of continued focus include research and promotion of student, residents and fellows in the early stages of their careers with the abstract poster presentations. Hopefully, we can see an expansion of this to include a greater number of programs represented to reflect our diverse specialty backgrounds throughout the 18 SPS states.
Our vendor and meeting sponsors serve as an invaluable resource not only for their financial assistance but the spread of knowledge on the newest medicines, devices and services. We on the board are trying to take steps to further facilitate this engagement with expanded break times and interaction opportunities.
Why is the Southern Pain Society still vibrant after all these years? I like to think it is because we are a family of practitioners who want to see practices flourish, pain providers enthused and engaged and patients thriving. We have been open to expanding our committees, newsletters, online and social media presence. So please make it your New Year’s resolution to join me and the Southern Pain society in New Orleans September 20, 21, and 22 and make 2024 a year of growth and including contributing to this SPS newsletter.