2026 Annual Meeting – May 1-3,2026

All sessions will be held in-person at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

Detailed program information will be available in fall 2025.

Program Overview

Friday, May 1, 2026

Plenary Session: T.H. Seldon Memorial Lecture – From Evidence to Action: Overcoming Challenges in Clinical Practice Change
7:00 am – 8:30 am

Sharon E. Straus, CM, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FCAHS, FRSC, Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs, Chief Medical Officer; Director, Knowledge Translation Program, Unity Health Toronto

Ticketed PBLDs
7:30 am – 6:00 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
8:30 am – 9:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
9:00 am – 10:00 am

  • From Data to Decisions: How Data Science and AI Are Influencing Pediatric Perioperative Care
  • Intraoperative Pain During Cesarean Delivery: An Evidence-Based Review of Knowns and Unknowns
  • Opioid misuse risk stratification: role for assessment of subjective responses to opioids (e.g., euphoria, nausea)

Poster Session A
10:00 am – 11:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
11:00 am – 12:00 pm

  • Clearing the Fog: Emerging Strategies to Improve Post-Anesthetic Cognitive Recovery – co-sponsored by eSAS
  • Cognitive Fatigue and Clinician Collapse : Is There a Biomarker Before the Mistake ?
  • Shared Decision-Making in Perioperative Care: Value-Based, Patient-Centered Outcomes

Lunch on own
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
1:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Poster Session B
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

Concurrent Sessions
2:45 pm – 3:45 pm

  • Best Solutions to Challenging Cases–Evidence-Based Approaches in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
  • Brain on the Brink: Perioperative Strategies for Ischemic Stroke, TBI & SAH ‚Äì Co-Sponsored by The Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC)
  • Hemostatic Precision: Current Evidence and Trends in Factor Concentrate Use for cardiac and non-cardiac surgeries

Break
3:45 pm – 4:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

  • EEG-based Anesthesia Monitoring Across the Lifespan: From the Very Young to the Old and Sick
  • Making Sense of Stories: A Clinician‚Äôs Introduction to Qualitative Research
  • What can a large high-fidelity simulation study of acute care management tell us about anesthesiologists and their practice

Plenary Session: International Science Symposium – Algorithms to Clinical Innovations: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Transform Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

 

Nima Aghaeepour, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

 

 

 

 

Parisa Rashidi, PhD, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

 

 

 

 

Andrew H. Song, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

 

 

Saturday, May 2, 2026

Plenary Session: President’s Lecture- Tools for Analyzing, Repairing, and Simulating the Brain
7:00 am – 8:30 am

Ed Boyden, Ph.D., Y. Eva Tan Professor in NeurotechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Ticketed PBLDs
7:30 am – 6:00 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
8:30 am – 9:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
9:00 am – 10:00 am

  • Does Preoperative Risk Prediction Improve Perioperative Outcome? An Update
  • From Preop to Postop: Transforming Perioperative Care Through Virtual Innovation
  • Less Opioid, More Recovery? Debating the Future of Surgical Pain Management

Poster Session C
10:00 am – 11:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
11:00 am – 12:00 pm

  • Mandating Video Laryngoscopy: A Debate on Safety, Skills, and Standards
  • WFSA-IARS joint session: Challenges in Pediatric Anesthesia

Lunch on own
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
1:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Poster Session D
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

Concurrent Sessions
2:45 pm – 3:45 pm

  • A to Z of Adipose Based Chronic Disease: Perioperative Care of¬†the patient suffering from Obesity: across the ages
  • Hazardous Attitudes in Anesthesiology: Data and Insights from Medical Simulation, Behavioral Economics, and Aviation Safety
  • Medically Challenging Cases

Break
3:45 pm – 4:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

  • Stopping Pain Before It Starts: Translating Pain Science into Transitional Pain Services
  • Innovative Approaches to Technical Skills Teaching and Learning
  • Perioperative Drug Choices, what’s new?

IARS 2026 Gala
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Plenary Session: Kosaka Best Abstract Awards
7:00 am – 8:30 am

Ticketed PBLDs
7:30 am – 2:00 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
8:30 am – 9:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
9:00 am – 10:00 am

  • How to have an Average (mediocre) career in Academic Anesthesiology
  • Subspecialty Training in Anesthesia: A Stress Test and an Opportunity for Reconditioning – Co-Sponsored by The Society of Academic Associations of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (SAAAPM)
  • Transitions in Consciousness: Current Insights from the Anesthetized State – Co- Sponsored by The Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC)

Poster Session E
10:00 am – 11:00 am

Concurrent Sessions
11:00 am – 12:00 pm

  • Attracting Young Talent: Modern Tools for Recruiting Innovators
  • Point and Counterpoint: the Brain in Balance: Can Anesthetic Dose Influence Delirium Risk?
  • Sequencing-Based Technologies for Precision Anaesthesia Care

Break
12:00 pm – 12:15 pm

Coffee Break with Exhibits
1:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Plenary Session
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm