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

 

AI-driven Integration of Clinical and Biological Data for Peri-operative Care
Nima Aghaeepour, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

 

 

 

 

AI-driven Understanding of Human Cancer
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