he ASA Committee on Research has 17 members and three principal responsibilities: assessing the scientific merit of research grants submitted for Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) awards, judging submissions for the ASA Residents’ Research Essay Contest and selecting the ASA Presidential Scholar Award. I would like to describe in brief each of these activities.

FAER Awards
Twice a year, the committee receives approximately 20-30 research grant applications. The applications are distributed to all members of the committee, and each grant is assigned to two committee members who serve as principal reviewers by completing a systematic, independent, written review of the grant. Thereafter the reviews of the principal reviewers are exchanged in advance of the committee meeting. One meeting is held in spring and one just before the ASA Annual Meeting in October. During the committee meeting, the findings of the principal reviewers are presented to the entire Committee on Research, and the strengths and weaknesses of the applications are discussed in detail. Then each committee member is asked to score the grant according to a standardized evaluation system [Table 1].

After all of the grants have been reviewed in this systematic fashion, the average score for each application is tabulated, and the applications are ranked from strongest to weakest. This information is provided to the FAER Board of Directors for decisions regarding funding. In addition the written reviews from the principal reviewers as well as a synopsis of the committee’s discussion are provided to the FAER office. The committee members make every effort to provide constructive criticism in the review process that will help the applicants strengthen their research project and future applications, whether to FAER or other granting sources such as the National Institutes of Health. Indeed a substantial number of FAER award winners have been funded after resubmission and substantial improvement in their applications.

In part this process depends on assigning the applications to scientists with special expertise in the area proposed for investigation. As the committee chair, I am grateful for the exceptionally diverse range of expertise on our research committee. The comprehensive reviews provided by committee members can take many hours or even days to complete. When their efforts lead to substantial improvement in the design of research in the field of anesthesiology, however, those contributions may be very far-reaching.

Residents’ Essay Contest
The second responsibility of the committee is judging the ASA Residents’ Research Essay Contest. Typically the committee receives 10-20 essays to review, and all committee members are asked to read these essays carefully and rank them from strongest to weakest. Because the range of topics covered in the essays can be extraordinarily wide, this is no small task for our members. After all of the results are tabulated, a clear ranking may be established or a re-evaluation of the strongest essays may be necessary in order to determine first-, second-, and third-place winners. Both the potential scientific impact of the work as well as the quality of scientific writing are factors in the judging process. The results of the committee’s deliberations are forwarded to the ASA Executive Office, and the essay contest winners are announced at the ASA Annual Meeting.

Presidential Scholar Award
The third and newest responsibility is the selection of the Presidential Scholar Award winner. During his term as President in 2003, James E. Cottrell, M.D., created the Presidential Scholar Award to highlight research by young faculty in anesthesiology departments. The Committee on Research reviewed the first applications for this award in spring 2003. Nominees for the award are required to be within the first seven years of their first appointment in their department of anesthesiology. Other qualifications include certification by the American Board of Anesthesiology, ASA membership and a career that is both clinically active and scientifically productive. Personally this has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of participating on the ASA Committee on Research, and reading about the accomplishments of these extraordinary young anesthesiologists has been inspiring. Applications for the Presidential Scholar Award are reviewed in detail by all committee members. Just as is the case in evaluation of the essay applications, the evaluation of the Presidential Scholar applicants is done independently by committee members, and their evaluations of the standardized application are tabulated. When no clear winner is evident after the first round of evaluations, subsequent rounds are conducted as necessary in order to impartially select the award winner.

In all of the deliberations of the committee, any member with a potential conflict of interest is excused from voting for that applicant or discussions involving that application. As an example, when a FAER application is discussed by the committee, any member of the committee from that applicant’s department or with any personal connection to that applicant is excused from the committee presence and does not vote on that application.

As you can see, the ASA Committee on Research is a busy and hard-working committee. I am grateful for the devoted service that the members of the committee provide to our Society and to our specialty. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to chair such a distinguished group.

Michael K. Cahalan, M.D., is Professor and Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah.