The 17th Annual Safar Symposium took place on April 22nd and 23rd this year, and was an outstanding success, and one the most well attended in the event’s history. The first day of lectures addressed the challenges of neuroprotection and neurotoxicity in the developing brain. The lecturers covered topics as diverse as contemporary therapy of concussion in children, a future vision for the use of therapeutic hypothermia, the use of serum biomarkers of brain injury as bedside diagnostics in the ICU, early rehabilitation after brain injury, and long-term outcome of critically ill children in neurocritical care.

The keynote speech of the event, the Peter & Eva Safar Annual Lectureship in Medical Sciences & Humanities, was titled “Complex Chronic Illness – Who will care? Who will cure?” The lecture was presented bythe current president and CEO of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. David G. Nichols, former anesthesiology and critical care medicine faculty and vice dean at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.