The Section on Critical Care was founded in 1984 and enables members who are primarily interested in pediatric critical care to meet for the purpose of discussing and developing ideas and generating programs and projects which will improve the care of infants, children and adolescents. Membership in the Section is open to Fellows, Post-Residency Training Fellows, Candidate Fellows, Honorary Fellows, Emeritus Fellows, Life Fellows, Dual Fellows, and Resident Fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Members should be actively involved in some aspect of the study of life-threatening single or multiple organ system failure caused by disease or injury. The Section currently has 702 members. The Section on Critical Care proposes educational programming at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition including a professional program open to all members of the Academy and a business meeting limited to Section members and invited guests only. In addition, the Section implements an annual call for abstracts, presented at this meeting and published in the journal, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. The Section serves as an expert resource to the Academy by providing review and input to official Academy policy. Each year, the Section sponsors the Distinguished Career Award, to honor a pediatric intensivist who has made significant contributions to the field of pediatric critical care. In addition, when funding is available, the Section sponsors a Critical Care New Investigator Research Grant. The Section has also provided grant support to the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Web site. The PedsCCM Web site posts the Section newsletter and other important Section announcements as well as being linked to the AAP Web site. Finally, the Section has sponsored 2 Pediatric Critical Care Coding Courses - one in October 2002 during the Colloquium and another in June 2003 just before the World Congress - and a 1- 1½ day course on "Preparing for Life in Academics" in October 2003, 2005 and 2007.