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March 1997
Volume 61 |
Number 3
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| Control Your Destiny:
Take Advantage of Technology |
N. Ty Smith, M.D., Chair
Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology
The Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology
(EMIT) was originally formed as a task force, through the vision
and foresight of the current ASA President, Phillip O. Bridenbaugh,
M.D. The original objective was to implement anesthesiology education
with newer technology such as CD-ROMs. Since it soon became apparent
that much more was needed, the task force became an ad hoc committee
to help ASA with all the technology related to electronic communication
and information.
It became obvious that opportunities abounded, and at its first
meetings, EMIT generated 20 major recommendations, with many ancillary
recommendations, for helping ASA take advantage of the diverse
resources available: electronic, optical, multimedia information,
but most of all human resources. ASA members represent an enormous
pool of talent, simply because of our training and selection.
One of the paramount thrusts of ASA as a Society is education.
To that end, this issue of the ASA NEWSLETTER features
educational articles by members of EMIT.
EMIT's 20 Recommendations
The 20 EMIT recommendations, generated in 1994 and 1995, allowed
ASA to focus its priorities and resources to accomplish its goals
for the future as expeditiously as possible. They are given here,
very briefly. For a full description of the 20 recommendations
and their implementation, please contact the ASA Executive Office
and request a copy of the complete EMIT committee report, presented
to the 1995 ASA House of Delegates. The recommendations concerning
the invaluable resources of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
(WLM) are particularly detailed and a small part of that detail
is included below.
- Implement an ASA World Wide Web site.
- Procure and implement electronic mail (e-mail) for the ASA
officers and section chairs.
- Publish ASA documents on the ASA list server, on other anesthesia-related
servers and on CD-ROM.
- Make available to and publish for the members an annotated
list of optical and electronic resources related to anesthesia.
- Provide at least five old issues of the Self-Education and
Evaluation (SEE) program as electronic media.
- Electronically publish tables of contents and abstracts of
the journal Anesthesiology
on the Web and CD-ROM as a part of a major resource that includes
other journals and anesthesia textbooks.
- Encourage the development, production and use of multimedia
materials.
- Regarding the Wood Library-Museum:
- Archive electronically all of the volumes and other resources
of the library and the museum.
- Advertise the availability of these resources for study
and scholarship.
- Develop multimedia resources to educate anesthesiologists
and the public.
- Develop an index of WLM resources for the ASA CD-ROM.
- Encourage academic centers and other responsible organizations
(e.g., Association of American Medical Colleges) to recognize
computer-related creativity as an appropriate activity for promotion
or appointment, equivalent to clinical or bench research.
- Determine present ASA membership resources, including network
connection, software development and hardware; and determine
to what extent members would be willing to share these resources
with the membership.
- Encourage ASA members to use CD-ROM, e-mail and the Internet.
- Archive all remaining and appropriate ASA materials that have
been made public, including the minutes of the ASA Board of
Directors meetings.
- Began to address the problems of data privacy, both of the
patient and of the physician, especially as they relate to anesthesiologists
and their areas of work, including the operating room.
- Publicize the existence, function and goals of EMIT by way
of the following:
- An article in the ASA NEWSLETTER
- A booth at the ASA Annual Meeting, either separate from
or with another booth, for example, the Committee on Communications
booth
- Making use of existing Internet resources
- Publicize the current e-mail addresses of the ASA Executive
Office and ASA Washington Office as a means of contacting ASA
staff.
- Educate the public with, for example, CD-ROMs on the history
of anesthesia, what anesthesia is and what anesthesiologists
do.
- Locate ASA members who are willing to create resources for
ASA and thereby for their fellow members.
- Continuously update the information on resources available
to the membership and from the membership, taking advantage
of the Internet's capabilities.
- Use the resources of the Internet, including e-mail, as a
means of expressing to the public, news media and lawmakers
the opinions and aspirations of anesthesiologists.
- The ASA Annual Meeting materials and programs should be made
available to members electronically. This includes the following:
- Text, audio and slides of all presentations, including
Refresher Course Lectures
- Registration and payment performed electronically
- Presentations, with abstracts, available before the meeting
in a database, which allows for search and retrieval of
information
- Refresher Course Lectures Book, including text, audio
and slides
- ASA Annual Meeting Program book, which includes the schedule,
times and locations of all presentations
- All of these available on the ASA Web site and CD-ROM,
before or after the meeting, as appropriate
- On-site message service for all attendees, possibly via
an intranet
Progress Report
Thanks to the incredible work of ASA volunteers, EMIT members
and the ASA Executive Office, considerable progress has been made
since the inception of EMIT. Here are some of the highlights.
There is now an ASA Web site originally
set up by Stanley W. Stead, M.D. Thanks to Janice L. Plack, ASA
Systems Manager, and her devoted and patient staff, most of these
ASA resources are currently available on the ASA Web site and
are frequently updated. The published documents now include the
NEWSLETTER, ASA Bylaws,
meeting information,
standards, guidelines, practice parameters, patient
education brochures and other important links.
From the ASA journal Anesthesiology, guidelines, tables
of contents and abstracts are available on the journal's own site.
Originally set up by EMIT member Ira Rampil, M.D., you can find
them at <http://www.anesthesiology.org>.
The affiliate anesthesia related organizations of ASA also have
separate Web pages, thanks to the work of EMIT volunteers. As
component societies develop their own Web pages, links to and
from the ASA site are being established.
The major progress in both multimedia and the WLM has been the
development of a virtual tour of the WLM by George J. Sheplock,
M.D. This is an amazing tour de force. In addition, members of
EMIT helped to videocast the E.A. Rovenstine Lecture for the first
time in real time from the 1996 ASA Annual Meeting in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Anesthesiologists from all over the world were able
to access this important lecture at the time it was given. Thanks
to Keith J. Ruskin, M.D., members can now also view and hear this
lecture at their convenience via the Web.
Charles Brindis, M.D., is heading up an effort to implement a
multipronged program to address the important problem of academic
recognition for computer-related activities.
To publicize e-mail addresses for ASA staff, the information
was printed on an easy-to-carry business card, which was distributed
at the 1996 ASA Annual Meeting and enclosed with the 1997 dues
statements.
The process has also begun to provide additional electronic services
at the ASA Annual Meeting:
- For the past two meetings, Dr. Rampil has made a search mechanism
available on the Internet that allows the user to search for
a specific topic or speaker at the ASA Annual Meeting. The listing
gives the title, authors, date, time and venue, in the order
of presentation, if desired. Thus, the user has a printout to
take to the meeting, which allows the person to more efficiently
plan his or her time at the meeting. The first offering has
been accessed daily, even months after the meeting. This popularity
is presumably related to its currently being the main convenient
source for these important citations.
- EMIT produced a demonstration ASA CD-ROM sampler, which was
distributed at the 1996 ASA Annual Meeting. It incorporated
samples of many of EMIT's goals. This was accomplished through
the efforts of Michael P. Smith, M.D., Thomas P. Engel, M.D.,
Dr. Sheplock and Dr. Stead. Contact <v.kaczmarik@ASAhq.org>
for a copy of the sampler while supplies last.
- EMIT also participated in last year's exhibit "From W.T.G.
Morton to the World Wide Web, 150 Years of Anesthesia."
Members of EMIT provided their services to the various booths
involved in this exhibit, including exhibits by the Committee
on Patient Safety and Risk Management with the Anesthesia Patient
Safety Foundation and the Committee on Communications. Much
of the work was done by Drs. Ruskin, Engel, Smith and Sheplock.
- Thanks to Dr. Rampil and Michael M. Todd, M.D., ASA will incorporate
as many ASA Annual Meeting abstracts as possible on the Web
for the 1997 meeting. This will not replace the printed abstracts,
but it does represent a transition.
Future Plans
Surveys have been conducted regarding membership resources, but
we need to know much more detail, including usage patterns. EMIT
is your committee. If you have any suggestions, wishes, complaints
or comments, please let me or one of the other members know. My
e-mail address is <tsmith@ucsd.edu>.
What is in the future? EMIT's winter meeting was held on February
1. EMIT's proposals for ASA implementation will be the subject
of a future NEWSLETTER article. There are many areas where
work is needed. If, however, I had to choose one critical, essentially
unaddressed area, it would be public relations. The Web and CD-ROMs
represent media to reach the world and tell the public who we
are, what we do, how we think, and why we are important to them
and their loved ones. The patient brochures available on the ASA
Web site are a good start. Now we need to develop innovative,
fun, multimedia productions on our history, our talents and our
value to society and distribute them at cost on CDs and make them
available free on the Web. In addition, we need to monitor every
possible article, radio or television discussion on anesthesia,
along with our annotations, comments and rebuttals. Done properly,
we can quickly defuse bad PR and reinforce the good.
The future of anesthesiology is exciting. If we are to control
our destiny, however, we must take advantage of the communication
and information resources available to us.
N. Ty Smith, M.D., is Professor Emeritus
of Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego,
California.
E-mail the author.
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