The Dialogue Continues

ugust 20, 2004, was a historic day. What took place that morning in the Westin O’Hare Hotel would have been unthinkable a year ago. On that day, the 11-member American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) Board of Directors met with the 12-member ASA Administrative Council for five hours. During this time, the leaders of both societies had an opportunity to meet each other, to learn the ThoughtBridge process and to discuss issues in the presence of facilitators from ThoughtBridge.

On six previous occasions, a smaller group of AANA and ASA leaders met with the ThoughtBridge facilitators. It was the consensus during these meetings that important progress was being made in establishing meaningful dialogue between AANA and ASA. It also was the consensus that it was essential to involve a larger group of leaders from each Society for the process to continue.

On that morning, the assembled group completed the following work:

• A final draft of the document titled “The Procedural Guidelines for the Leadership of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists” was approved by all present.

• Four ideas were adopted about how to communicate to the membership of both societies, the process used and the progress made at these meetings.

• Three future meetings of the smaller leadership group were scheduled: October 10-11, 2004, November 7-8, 2004, and January 9-10, 2005.

AANA Immediate Past President Tom McKibban, CRNA, and ASA President Roger W. Litwiller, M.D., thanked those present for their cooperative spirit and hard work. They announced that this would be the last meeting in which they would be involved and urged that the process continue.

Component Society News:
Pain Gets Funny Treatment in St. Louis

embers of the Missouri Society of Anesthesiologists (MSA) took center stage in August when comedian Jerry Lewis toured the St. Louis area to talk about pain. Gregory H. Smith, D.O., MSA Annual Meeting Pain Management Section Director, was interviewed on August 11 by local media outlets KMOX radio, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KTVI-Fox News, Channel 2 television. MSA member Robert A. Swarm, M.D., also was interviewed for the Post-Dispatch story.

Dr. Smith is a veteran of media relations in the St. Louis area and saw Mr. Lewis’ arrival as the perfect opportunity to expose pain medicine to a wide audience. MSA member James J. Gibbons, M.D., also played an active role in bringing media attention to this event by working with the ASA Communications Department regarding speaking points and other press-related information.

Many people know Jerry Lewis as the indefatigable fall-guy of physical comedy, but few know of the price he has paid for his estimated 1,900 career pratfalls. One gag in 1965 left him temporarily paralyzed and continued to cause him pain for the next 37 years. Thanks to an implanted “pain pacemaker,” though, Mr. Lewis has some semblance of control over chronic pain that almost led him to suicide.

Mr. Lewis echoed what pain medicine physicians have long known. “We have 75 million people suffering with chronic pain in this country. It is an epidemic,” he said.

MSA member and Missouri state representative Sam L. Page, M.D., also made news last August by successfully sponsoring legislation that may help keep sexual offenders behind bars. The legislation closed a loophole in existing Missouri law discovered when rapist Thomas Ingrassia escaped from a mental health facility by cutting a fence and fleeing to Florida, where he married and lived for two years under an assumed identity. Under the law before Dr. Page’s legislation, this escape was not considered a crime. Now that the legislation has been implemented, escape from civil commitment is treated as a felony.

Dr. Page (D) is a representative for Missouri District 82 and practices anesthesiology and pain medicine in St. Louis county.