The ninth World Congress of Anesthesiologists will be held in Washington, D.C. May 22-28. This meeting is co-sponsored by the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists and the ASA and is expected to attract many practitioners from around the world. The theme of the Congress is “vigilance”.

There will be a refresher course given by APSF President E.C. Pierce, M.D. on “State-of-the-art monitoring in anesthesia”. Panels with distinguished international participants will be held on “Anesthesia patient safety” and “Anesthesia outcome and quality assurance. how do we measure it and does it influence care?” In addition, there will be sessions of scientific papers in the area of “Patient Safety and Risk Management.”

Throughout the Congress, the Anesthesia Patient safety Foundation will maintain a booth among the exhibits. In addition to general information, there will be available bound volumes of the APSF Newsletter, the videotape “Safety and Cost in Anesthesia,” the “Spot the Error” videotapes, and the APSF clipboards intended for 0. R. use. These clipboards have printed on them an abbreviated anesthesia machine checklist and a relief exchange protocol.

Also in the exhibits, a portion of the Ohmeda booth will be continuously showing the ASA Patient Safety Videotape Series.

Congress registration information is available by calling the ASA (312) 825-5586 or writing: 1’rS/WfSA;P.O.Box825;Deerfield,IL 60015.

There is also a pre-Congress meeting May 2 1 and 22 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Washington Center sponsored by the Yale University Department of Anesthesia. The meeting is entitled “Current concepts in non-invasive monitoring and patient safety.” Registration information can be obtained by calling the Yale Office of Graduate and Continuing Education (203) 785-4578.