ANESTHESIOLOGY 2020 was the kind of annual meeting ASA members have come to expect year after year – over 13,000 registrants, top-tier lecturers, world-class educational sessions, and networking opportunities that can be had nowhere else.
Except it was unlike any annual meeting that has ever come before it.
In her Rovenstine Lecture, Joanne Conroy observed that “The [COVID] pandemic is an example of what broad disruption looks like. It has changed our lives.” No doubt it has, and in ways and degrees that we may not be able to appreciate for years. But there can also be no doubt that the pandemic has spurred adaptation and innovation that will far outlive it.
By the end of June 2020, there were two things the members of the Committee on Annual Meeting Oversight (AMOC) knew for certain: there would be no in-person meeting, and there would be no drop off in the...
