Linda J. Mason MD is the recipient of the 2024 Society for Pediatric Anesthesia's Myron Yaster MD lifetime achievement award
I am so pleased to announce and invite all of you who will be attending the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia tomorrow to join in honoring and celebrating Dr. Linda Mason. A brief review of her many accomplishments is summarized below. And, I’d like to add a little known fact about her. You all know about medical eponyms. An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. A few examples of medical eponyms are the Babinski sign, Crohn's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease to name a few. However, how many of you know of the Mason-Betts sign eponym named after Linda and Dr. Gene Betts? In 1980 how could you tell if a paralyzed infant had enough muscle strength to be safely extubated after neuromuscular blockade reversal? Remember, this was before quantitative and even qualitative blockade monitoring was available. In adults you could ask the patient to perform a head lift or to squeeze your fingers. But how could you do this in neonates and infants? In a classic paper, Linda and Gene showed that leg lift in an infant was equivalent to head lift in an adult...hence the eponym “the Mason Betts sign”. Myron Yaster MD
PS: The entire PAAD executive council will be at the SPA/ASA annual meetings over the next few days so we wont post a PAAD on Monday October 21. Hopefully I will have pictures from the SPA meeting to post next week! MY
Original article
Mason LJ, Betts EK. Leg lift and maximum inspiratory force, clinical signs of neuromuscular blockade reversal in neonates and infants. Anesthesiology. 1980 May;52(5):441-2. doi: 10.1097/00000542-198005000-00015. PMID: 6990835.
Linda J. Mason, M.D., FASA, FCAI has been a Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics from February 1996 to the present at Loma Linda University and Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Mason graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1974. She took her internship in Straight Medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center from October 1974-September 1975. Then did her residency also at Loma Linda University Medical Center, Department of Anesthesiology from January 1976-June 1978 with an emphasis in Cardiac Anesthesia during the last 6 months. Dr. Mason was also the Chief Resident in Anesthesiology from January 1978-June 1978. From there she was accepted into a Pediatric Anesthesia and Intensive Care Fellowship from July 1978-July 1979 at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Mason became a diplomate in the American Board of Anesthesiology in 1980, specialty board certification. She also has special qualifications in critical care with the American Board of Anesthesiology as a secondary specialty in September 1986. In October 2013 she passed her secondary specialty boards in Pediatric Anesthesiology also with the American Board of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Mason is a member of the following societies: She has been a member of the California Society of Anesthesiologists since 1979 and she served as the President of the Society from May 2004 thru May 2005. She is currently an ASA Past President (2019 ASA President) and has been a member since 1976; Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (1997-present); Association of University Anesthesiologists (2005-present); President of the Association of Anesthesiology Subspecialty Program Directors (AASPD) (2008-2010) and is still a member; she was a Member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Review Committee for Anesthesiology (2010-2016); American Board of Anesthesiology – Pediatric Anesthesiology Question Writer (11/9/2011-12/31/2014); an Editor for the American Board of Anesthesiologist – Pediatric Anesthesiology Exam (1/1/2015-12/31/17); and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Appeals Panel – Anesthesiology (10/2021-2027); and she is currently the Board Chair for PALC.
Dr. Mason has received numerous recognitions and honors: Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine Digby Leigh Lectureship in honor of the founder of the Department at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (January 2008); California Society of Anesthesiologists Distinguished Service Award (June 2016); Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (FASA June 2017); D.C. Children’s National Hospital – 9th Annual Willis A. McGill Honorary Lecture (May 2022); and Distinguished Academic Award of Loma Linda University Health (2022). She has presented over 675 outside lectures and Visiting Professorships during her career.