New York State Society of Anesthesiologists (NYSSA)

The New York State Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc., launched the first PostGraduate Assembly in Anesthesiology on December 13, 1945 in New York Citys Hotel Pennsylvania. Originally, the PGA was to be a biennial meeting. Thus, the second PGA was not held until 1947, and the venue was changed to the New Yorker Hotel. However, the New York State Section of the American Society of Anesthesiologists had just organized and the PGA functioned as its annual meeting as well The third PGA was held a year later and innovations in the 1948 program included a panel session on Diagnostic and Therapeutic Block for the Treatment of Intractable Pain chaired by Harvard surgeons, Drs. White and Sweet. This panel illustrates the PGA philosophy of utilizing the best experts for panels regardless of specialty. The panels prominence within the program also demonstrated the importance of pain management to anesthesiology even in the late 1940s. 1950 marked the fourth PGA, and from then on the meet...