Joseph Cravero MD is the 2025 Robert M. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award winner
Myron Yaster MD
Presentation: Friday, March 28, 2025; 12:10pm ET
“In 1986, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Anesthesiology (SOA) created the Robert M. Smith Award in honor of the first Chair of the AAP Committee on Anesthesia. Dr. Smith was an influential and innovative pediatric anesthesiologist who felt it was his mission to improve techniques and equipment for pediatric patients undergoing surgery. The prestigious Robert M. Smith Award is presented annually to honor an individual who is a Fellow of the AAP (FAAP) and who has made outstanding contributions to the field of pediatric anesthesiology. These are truly remarkable individuals who have made many important advances to our subspecialty.”(1)
Dr. Joseph Cravero is one of the true pioneers in pediatric anesthesia and pediatric sedation services. In 2004, he founded the Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium (PSRC), which has significantly improved the safety and efficacy of pediatric sedation services across multiple institutions. In 2006, he founded the Society for Pediatric Sedation (SPS) and served as its President and Chair of the Board of Directors from 2006 to 2010. Currently, SPS has more than 900 members in the USA and Canada, and its leadership award is called the Joseph P. Cravero Leadership Award. Dr. Cravero has played an active role in the AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, serving as an Executive Committee member from 2000 to 2011 and its Chair from 2006 to 2018. He also served on the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) Board of Directors from 2012 to 2017. He is currently the Chair of the Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council. He founded the SPA Improvement Network (SPAIN), which collects and analyzes data on difficult pain management cases at ten academic children's hospitals in the United States. Dr. Cravero is a prolific author with more than 80 peer-reviewed research publications, 30 other peer-reviewed publications, 34 book chapters, numerous reviews, invited editorials, and letters. He is a senior examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology and an elected member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists. He also serves on the Editorial Board of 2 prestigious journals, Anesthesia and Analgesia and Pediatric Anesthesia. In addition, he has received multiple teaching awards. Dr. Cravero has trained and mentored numerous pediatric anesthesiologists at Dartmouth and Boston Children's Hospital, who have gone on to have successful careers in pediatric anesthesiology. His humble, caring, and uncluttered approach to pediatric anesthesia has inspired many of his students and mentees.
Please make every effort to attend the presentation of the award and celebrate Dr. Cravero’s enormous contributions to our specialty.
PS: I thought it might be of great interest to many of you to know who else has previously won the Smith award. Listed below are the previous award winners. Special thanks to Drs. Constance Houck and Rita Agarwal who helped me put this list together.
References
1. Agarwal R, Riefe J, Houck CS. Fifty years of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesiology: a history of our specialty. Paediatric anaesthesia 2017;27(6):560-570. (In eng). DOI: 10.1111/pan.13121.
Previous Smith award winners
Year Name
1986 Robert M. Smith
1987 William O. McQuiston
1988 A. W. Conn
1989
1990 Herbert Rackow and Ernest Salanitre
1991
1992 Joseph Marcy
1993 Gordon (Jack) Jackson-Rees
1994 Margery Van Norden Deming
1995 Leonard Bachman
1996 John J. Downes
1997 C. Ronald Stephen
1998 John F. Ryan
1999 George A. Gregory
2000
2001 David Steward
2002 Dolly Hansen
2003 Etsuro K. Motoyama
2004 Theodore Striker
2005
2006 Alvin Hackel
2007 Josephine (Pina) Templeton
2008 Frederic Berry
2009 David Ryan Cook
2010 Juan Gutierrez-Mazzora
2011 Charles Cote'
2012 Nishan Goudsouzian
2013 J. Christian Abajian
2014 Raafat Hannallah
2015 Charles Lockhart
2016 Lynne G. Maxwell
2017 Peter Davis
2018 Robert Friesen
2019 Nancy Glass
2020 Jayant K. Desphpande
2021 Corrie T. M. Anderson
2022 Shoba Malviya
2023 Navil Sethna
2024 Elliot J. Krane