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April
2002
Volume 66 |
Number
4
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COMPONENT
SOCIETY NEWS
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| Sarah
Joffe, M.D., to Receive NYSSA Distinguished Service Award |
Mark J.
Lema, M.D., Ph.D., Immediate Past President
New York State Society of Anesthesiologists
One of the
most influential figures in the history of the New York State
Society of Anesthesiologists (NYSSA), Sarah Joffe, M.D., will
receive that society's Distinguished Service Award at the opening
general session of the 56th Postgraduate Assembly on December
7, 2002.
Dr. Joffe's
career spans from a time when anesthesia was administered "with
a can of ether and a safety pin" to the time when she was
one of the first physicians to use telemetry in the operating
room. Her attitude and work ethic are well-known to her associates.
Current NYSSA Executive Director Kurt G. Becker praised Dr. Joffe
as "one of only a handful of female anesthesiologists during
the 1970s who was a chief of anesthesiology. She was able to survive
and flourish because she had a strong-willed 'belt and suspenders'
mind-set."
Her service
to NYSSA is unparalleled, and her influence is still felt today.
In 1972, she made history by becoming the first woman president
of the NYSSA. Although it is unfortunate that she met with much
resistance before being offered such a prominent position, she
silenced her critics by doing what any good leader, male or female,
does: she excelled. Longtime colleague Douglas R. Bacon, M.D.,
spoke of her importance as a woman in medicine.
"I have
a great admiration for Dr. Joffe because she stuck it out through
all those difficult times for women… and she made the path
for women, not only in anesthesiology but also in other specialties,"
Dr. Bacon said. "Because Dr. Joffe did such a good job, it
changed a lot of male attitudes."
Dr. Joffe's
presence was felt in NYSSA long before she became president. She
was active in the Postgraduate Assembly from 1945 until her retirement
in 1978. She was the guiding force that helped to reorganize the
NYSSA Annual Meeting and turn it into the second largest annual
anesthesiology meeting in the world.
In 1942, Dr.
Joffe secured a residency in anesthesiology at Bellevue Hospital
under the legendary Emery A. Rovenstine, M.D. Under Dr. Rovenstine's
unprejudiced tutelage, her talents were able to blossom, and her
career-long activism within NYSSA and anesthesiology in general
was set in motion.
Perhaps her
most memorable achievement within NYSSA was her reformatting of
the NYSSA Postgraduate Assembly. Before she took such a strong
interest in the PGA, it had lost much of its attendance and influence.
Through her dedication and intrepid ideas, however, she was able
to reinvent the meeting and bring it back to worldwide prominence.
Despite her
retirement from anesthesiology in 1978, Dr. Joffe, now a resident
of Sarasota, Florida, has found it difficult to retire her leadership
skills and desire to help others. In 1984, she became chair of
a task force that worked to develop a much-needed center in the
Sarasota area for the Florida State Division of Blind Services.
In 1985, she became the first president of the board of the Manasota
Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Now known as the Manasota
Lighthouse, the center today provides services to the visually
impaired of all ages.
Whether she
was reworking gender issues, breaking ground in anesthesiology
research or giving to communities to which she had already given
so much, Dr. Joffe's career truly embodies the term "distinguished
service."
The NYSSA
Distinguished Service Award will be presented in the Grand Ballroom
of the Hilton New York in New York City.
|
NYSSA Announces New Officers
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Phillip
N. Fyman, M.D.
Thel
G. Boyette, M.D.
Steven
S. Schwalbe, M.D.
Mark
J. Lema, M.D., Ph.D.
Kenneth
J. Abrams, M.D.
Michael
H. Mendeszoon, M.D.
Salvatore
G. Vitale, M.D.
Robert
S. Lagasse, M.D.
Paul
H. Willoughby, M.D.,
Jared
C. Barlow, M.D.
Kenneth
J. Freese, M.D.
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…President
…President Elect
…Vice-President
…Immediate
Past President
…Secretary
…Treasurer
…Assistant Treasurer
…First
Assistant Secretary
…Second
Assistant Secretary
…Director,
ASA
…Alternate
Director, ASA
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