The 33rd Annual Meeting of the WTSA was held at the Hyatt Regency, Tamaya Resort and Spa at the Santa Ana Pueblo, NM. This represents the first time the WTSA has met in New Mexico. The weather was delightfully warm and our group pretty much occupied the entire Hyatt. President Gelfand gave a superb talk (in celebration of our differences) outlining the pros and cons of the Canadian and the US Healthcare System and looking at these systems in a very positive note. The White Memorial Lectureship was presented by Philip F. Halloran. The lectureship was entitled Frontiers in Disease Phenotyping: The Example of Organ Transplantation. It was a scholarly lecture and very timely. The David Dugan Award was presented to Dr. W. Gerald Rainer for his contribution to thoracic surgery. Dr. John Benfield gave a eulogy for Dr. Richard M. Peters one of our past presidents.

The scientific presentations were excellent except for the withdrawal by the author of paper number 1. For this they were sanctioned for two years. The Shumway award for best paper entitled - Secretory Phospholipase A2 is Required to Induce Histologic Changes Associated with Gastroesophageal Reflux in a Murine Model was given to Dr. Michael Weyant. The Samson prize essay was won by Drs. Patrick Wolf and Jayan Nagendran. At the business meeting Dr. David Fullerton was elected to the position of vice president.

See you next year in Kona.
 
Marvin Pomerantz
Historian