ASURA in Hobart a huge success
The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA), ANZCA and the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists (NZSA) hosted almost 500 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, and around the world for the Australasian Symposium on Ultrasound guided Regional Anaesthesia (ASURA).
There were more than 70 different workshops and a full-day cadaveric teaching session at the Menzies Medical Research Centre in Hobart. An astounding number of ultrasound machines came to Hobart to allow so many simultaneous teaching sessions.
International invited speakers included:
Dr Maggie Holtz, US. Dr Holtz has a background in academia (Yale and Emory) and transitioned to medical director of regional anaesthesia for a large group of private hospitals. Maggie shared her extensive expertise in relation to day case major joint replacement surgery, trauma anaesthesia, teaching strategies, and system management/efficiencies.
Dr Nadia Hernandez, US drew on her experience at the largest trauma hospital in the US and dazzled delegates with her renowned skills in POCUS and RA. Nadia’s expert ability in ultrasound (used anywhere, in almost any situation) along with her dynamic style of teaching kept delegates entertained and engaged.
Dr Amit Pawa, UK is known worldwide as a champion of regional anaesthesia teaching, with an extraordinary ability to teach with clarity and humour. Amit is widely published and much admired as a world class educator and innovator in the regional anaesthesia community. Amit’s teaching at ASURA had a focus in RA for the trunk, but covered diverse areas including AI/ultrasound technology, RA for major joint surgery and awake breast surgery. The clarity of his teaching will inspire a new generation of delegates to listen to his podcast “Block It Like It’s Hot”.
2025 was the first time ASURA offered fully sponsored scholarship positions for delegates from low-income countries. Scholarship winners from Fiji, Timor Leste and Malaysia were a much-welcomed addition to ASURA 2025 and we plan to make such scholarships a feature of future ASURA meetings.
ASURA has always been a workshop-driven conference, with small group teaching and learning creating a productive experience and a strong atmosphere of collegiality within the subspecialty. Regional enthusiasts are so generous with their time and extremely friendly. There were more than 50 ASURA volunteer teachers and speakers who gave their time and enthusiasm to create a unique and positive learning experience for everyone. Thanks to all the speakers, workshop teachers, cadaveric session demonstrators and of course the delegates themselves who all together created a memorable, productive and fun ASURA 2025.
If you'd like to join the ANZ-RA, find out more here.
