NSWACE had another extremely successful year in 2002. In May we reviewed 'Issues in Perioperative Care'. This included revisiting traditional topics such as diabetes and fasting, and a look at some more unusual areas such as office based surgery, complementary medicines and pushing the limits of day only surgery.

In August we expanded our geographical horizons to visit the Hunter Valley. The new location proved a winner and attracted 150 registrants. The two day meeting focused on Paediatric Anaesthesia, but aimed more at the non sub-specialist level. Once again, the workshop format featured strongly, and a wide range of excellent topics were presented. Dr Don Maxwell, a noted vigneron, proved an entertaining dinner speaker, and the weekend was a great success all round. We will definitely be returning to the Hunter Valley in 2004 or 2005.

November saw a radical change in format from our traditional didactic presentations. Leonie Watterson and Michele Joseph organised a thoroughly entertaining, innovative and educational meeting involving video based interactive discussions, small group workshops, stage actors and panel discussions. The theme for the meeting was an examination of Decision-making and Risk Management in Clinical Anaesthetic Practice. The NSW Health Department launched its new Critical Incident Review Programme (root cause analysis) and the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care launched the National Standards for Open Disclosure.

Numbers were considerably restricted deliberately, to allow for intimate involvement of the audience. Feedback from participants revealed strong support and criticism (!) for different aspects of the day; overall no pattern emerged as different anaesthetists enjoyed different aspects of the day. However, over 95% of the audience strongly supported the innovative approach. We intend to repeat the meeting in May 2003, with some minor changes to allow a new cohort of anaesthetists to attend (and gain considerable QA points!).

In addition the meeting was professionally videotaped. It is intended to broadcast the edited meeting on the Health Communication Network Satellite to rural and remote hospitals across Australia in the near future. Discussions have also been undertaken to perhaps do this on a regular basis in collaboration with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. Videoconferencing of our meetings is planned for 2003, with the possibility of servicing all the capital cities and major centres in the near future. Please contact Jan Taylor (02 9966-9085) for further information on this exciting new possibility.

Towards the end of 2002 Mark Priestley joined the committee and we look forward to his involvement in 2003.

I would like to thank the NSWACE Committee of Matthew Crawford, Peter Isert, Michele Joseph, Ed Loughman, Mark Priestley & Leonie Watterson, together with Jan Taylor (Administrator) for the enormous effort involved in the organisation and committee work required to support CME in NSW.