Fifty years of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesiology: a history of our specialty.

The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2015. The Section was one of the first and only subspecialty organizations in anesthesiology at the time. This special article will focus on the contributions of the Section to the practice of pediatric anesthesiology in the areas of advocacy, education and member contributions. In 1986, the Section created the Robert M. Smith Award to honor those members who had made significant advances in the practice of pediatric anesthesiology. It is named after one of the Section founders, an influential educator, inventor, and researcher in our field. We will focus the latter part of the article on the Robert M. Smith award winners to illustrate the contributions of the Section and its members to the development of the field of pediatric anesthesiology.