Each year at the opening of the first session of the House of Delegates at the ASA Annual Meeting, the Committee on Communications presents one or more awards to the media for promoting the practice and safety of anesthesia and/or pain medicine. It is, for better or worse, the media that portrays on a daily basis the specialty of anesthesiology as a whole. This might be through a television show or a newspaper article highlighting an anesthesiologist climbing an insurmountable peak. All of these presentations, in one way or another, work to highlight our specialty and let the public know what we do and at times how important we are to the field of medicine.

It is generally through submissions from our membership at-large and from the media that the Committee on Communications receives notice of such work for consideration for a Media Award. Through a fair and consistent voting mechanism, the committee examines entries for awards in the areas of television, radio, the Internet and print. As many as four awards may be presented yearly, but if the committee does not feel that the entries for any of the four categories merit an award, no recognition will be made in one or more of these areas.

June 1, 2004, is the deadline for entries for presentation related to anesthesiology and critical care medicine or pain medicine written or presented between June 1, 2003, and May 31, 2004. The committee is actively seeking any meritorious entry that any member may be aware of, whether it is because you were interviewed for a print article or a radio or television spot or because you may have read an article in the lay press that impressed you as being especially moving or representative of anesthesiology, critical care medicine or pain medicine in a positive light. Additionally any member of the press or media with whom you may be acquainted should be encouraged to submit suitable entries. Formats may include newspaper articles, consumer-interest periodicals or other magazines, Web-based news services and Web sites, and television or radio broadcasts.

ASA members and/or members of the media or their editors or publishers may submit nominations. Nomination forms are available from and should be forwarded to the ASA Communications Department at <communications@ASAhq.org> or by contacting ASA at (847) 825-5586.


Past Media Award Winners — 1993-03

Jessie A. Leak, M.D., is Clinical Professor, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.