adam Speaker, Mr. President, officers, fellow members of the House of Delegates and guests, at this time it is my privilege as President-Elect to report my plans for the upcoming year. I will also discuss the process for developing those plans and look beyond the coming year.

In 1996, ASA Past President Harry H. Bird, M.D., chaired a committee that was assigned to study whether ASA should have a full-time physician Executive Vice-President. Flowing directly from the recommendations in that committee report are several initiatives that are now in place, an Academic Anesthesia Director, the Committee on Academic Anesthesiology, reorganization of ASA’s structure and governance and a strategic plan, which states the vision, mission, values and goals of this Society. The goals are education and advocacy for our members and patients, development of practice management resources and support for anesthesiology-related research.

The number and quality of educational offerings at this Annual Meeting, Regional Workshops and at-home study opportunities continue to grow, as you will note in the reports of the Section on Education and Research in the Delegate Handbook for this meeting. Both ASA leadership and administrative staff are committed to ensuring a strong infrastructure to support ASA’s expanding member education program. ASA is and will continue to be your best source for continuing professional education.

Our state and national advocacy initiatives are centered in Washington. The dedicated professional efforts of the Washington staff have made ASA’s advocacy program, under Michael Scott’s leadership, one of the strongest, most effective and respected in the nation. A characteristic of great leadership is creation of an environment that sustains an organization’s programs seamlessly in its absence or when it retires. Mr. Scott is such a leader. With the talented team that he will leave in place upon his retirement, his successor, Ronald Szabat, is well positioned to build on ASA’s already impressive advocacy program.

I was a member of the early-1990s Task Force on Practice Management that recommended centering practice management resources for ASA members in the Washington Office. The scope and quality of the practice management resources now available through the committed efforts of the Committee on Practice Management and the Washington staff far exceed anything that the members of that original task force envisioned. And they continue to add to the already comprehensive list of resources, as you will note in this year’s committee report. In addition First Vice-President Orin F. Guidry, M.D., has suggested several new initiatives that he will explore with the committee in coming months.

ASA supports research through the work of the Committee on Research and two foundations, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research [FAER]. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation relentlessly pursues its mission to assure that no patient shall be harmed by the effects of anesthesia. It fosters investigations that will provide a better understanding of preventable anesthetic injuries. Current examples are studies on:

• Long-term outcomes of surgery and anesthesia,

• High-reliability organizations and

• Audible monitor alarms.

FAER promotes the generation of new knowledge in anesthesiology that advances patient care and fosters career development of anesthesiologists dedicated to research and education in perioperative, critical care and pain medicine. This year FAER added two new categories of grants: the Mentored Research Training Grant and the Research in Education Grant.

Grant applications also have increased this year, a dramatic and welcome reversal of the trend from previous years. A step up in funding will be needed to support this increase in research activity. The FAER Board and ASA leadership are prepared to ensure that no meritorious grant application will be denied for lack of funds.

I would like to briefly mention a troublesome aspect of funding for anesthesia-related research. Approximately 5 percent of U.S. physicians are anesthesiologists. Approximately 5 percent of academic physicians are anesthesiologists. Yet the National Institutes of Health (NIH) award only 0.5 percent of their research grants to anesthesia-related research. NIH funding for anesthesia research is on the agenda of the recently constituted Committee on Academic Anesthesiology. When the committee comes to ASA leadership with a recommended strategy for increasing NIH funding for anesthesia-related research, we will work with them and see that the necessary resources are available to correct the inequity.

Summarizing the strategic plan initiatives for the coming year, ASA will continue to build on its programs for advocacy, member education, practice management resources and research, with the greatest emphasis on education and research.

As President-Elect, it is my privilege to report these plans for the coming year to the House of Delegates. With a new President-Elect charged with this responsibility each year, one might question the validity and continuity of this Society’s planning processes. The Administrative Council, as the official planning body of the Society, provides continuity. It must look not toward just the next year or two, but it must have the vision and resolve to look over the horizon in charting the future direction of our specialty.

Your officers must study the multiple issues that will influence and shape our profession and future practices. Dynamic changes in demographics, both within the general population and in physician supply, innovation and unrelenting cost-containment pressure will have profound effects on our practices. To that end, I have appointed a Task Force on Future Paradigms of Anesthesia Practice, chaired by Ronald D. Miller, M.D., of the University of California-San Francisco, to study the array of factors related to the future of our practices and profession. The task force report will serve as a resource to the Administrative Council in its work as the official planning body of the Society. Clearly, future Administrative Councils will have to revisit and update this work from time to time to keep it current.

In closing I wish to thank James E. Cottrell, M.D., and Roger W. Litwiller, M.D., for their patient mentoring over the past two years. I am indebted to the ASA staff for its always reliable assistance. And I thank you for entrusting me with this position. It truly is a great honor. However, candor and humility require me to tell you that without the wisdom and support of the officers you have chosen, no individual is capable of properly carrying out the scope and complexity of the duties associated with the office of ASA President. The officers with me on the dais today are fiercely dedicated to our profession and ASA. I am proud to be associated with every member of this team.

Eugene P. Sinclair, M.D., is Chief of Anesthesia Service, Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.