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Children's/CHOP collaborate

In an era of fierce competition in health care, a recent event demonstrated the true meaning of pediatrics: putting children before all else, including hospital politics. Children's Hospital Boston and the The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the country's leading pediatric hospitals, came together in April to cohost a pediatric anesthesiology and critical care medicine conference.

Anesthesiologists from the two hospitals collaborated to put on the event, called Perioperative Care of the Infant and Child, which drew 128 anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, physicians-in-training and others from Children's, CHOP and other hospitals across the country. "It's rare that two programs collaborate like this," says Sulpicio Soriano, MD, senior associate in Anesthesiology at Children's. "It provided a forum for faculty from both programs to share views on management of pediatric patients in the perioperative setting, therefore bringing together the best of both departments' practices and ideas."

Dr. Soriano organized the conference with Alan Schwartz, MD, director of education, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at CHOP. "This meeting represents what pediatric care is all about," Dr. Schwartz says. In addition to a tremendous learning experience, the event was also a bit of a reunion for Dr. Soriano and Dr. Schwartz, whose relationship goes back to the 1980s, when they were classmates at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.

The conference featured 86 speakers from both faculties. "We presented many cases and had several workshops including those on management of difficult airway, regional blocks and pain, and held simulations to exchange information," Dr.. Soriano says. "But more importantly, our faculty worked as a team toward a common goal." The hospitals plan to make the conference an annual event, with hosting duties switching every other year. Next year's conference will be at Children's Hospital Boston, May 21 to 24, 2008.

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