he World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) was established at the first World Congress of Anaesthesia in the Netherlands in 1955. At that time, there were 28 member societies. Currently there are 116 from nations across the globe. As the largest member society, ASA has made significant contributions over the years. For instance Francis Foldes, M.D., and John J. Bonica, M.D., were both past WFSA Presidents. Currently John R. Moyers, M.D., is Secretary; H. Jerrel Fontenot, M.D., is Deputy Treasurer; and Charles J. Coté, M.D., is a member of the Executive Committee, as is Phillip O. Bridenbaugh, M.D. who serves as Chair of the WFSA Foundation. ASA members are encouraged to visit the WFSA Web site at <www.anaesthesiologist.org>, where they will find information about the Federation, its member societies, WFSA committees and the WFSA newsletter. Anesthesiologists throughout the world convene every four years at the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists. The next World Congress will be held in Capetown, South Africa, in March 2008. It is anticipated that more than 10,000 anesthesiologists from more than 135 nations will attend.

The WFSA Education Committee, chaired by Angela Enright, M.B., from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, coordinates educational activities throughout the world with an emphasis on existing training programs and other long-term projects. The committee has sponsored teaching missions, speakers and meeting support in more than 60 countries during the past year. For example, in Africa and the Middle East, the training center in Accra, Ghana, continues as a major venture. The training center runs in conjunction with the ASA Overseas Teaching Program, where physicians are educated to become anesthesiologists in West Africa. ASA should feel a great deal of pride and accomplishment in this program due to its support over the years and the participation of many ASA members as teaching volunteers. Dr. Bridenbaugh and Alice A. Edler, M.D., as Chair and Vice-Chair of the ASA Committee on Overseas Teaching Programs, have been key ASA individuals in helping to keep this program productive. In Egypt, WFSA cosponsors a training center for physicians from Africa and the Middle East at Assiut University. In Asia a primary education focus is the Bangkok Anaesthesia Regional Training Center, which has run for several years and trains physicians from Southeast Asia in anesthesiology. At the end of their training, graduates take the certification examination of the Thai Society of Anesthesiologists. This training center has been particularly productive with seven graduates returning to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, as well as producing one of the first anesthesiologists in Bhutan.

In Europe and Israel, a training center in Beer Sheeva, Israel, continues to teach many anesthesiologists from Eastern Europe and now Kenya. Last year the center hosted trainees from Mongola, Slovakia, Macedonia and Kenya. This is one of the busiest and most successful training centers among the WFSA programs, where the young anesthesiologists are exposed to anesthesia training in operating rooms and to intensive care management. There are other training centers supported by the WFSA Education Committee and the European anesthesiology community in Romania, Italy and the United Kingdom. South America has a pediatric training center at Calvo McKenna Hospital in Santiago, Chile, that enrolls three fellows each year. New this year is a one-year fellowship in pediatric cardiovascular anesthesia at the training center. In addition there are pediatric anesthesia training centers in various stages of maturity in Capetown, South Africa; Tunis, Tunisia; and Vellore, India. One must congratulate ASA member Dr. Coté and his colleagues in the international pediatric anesthesiology community for instituting, organizing and finding support for these training programs. In many instances, the trainees from these centers return to their home countries as the first pediatric anesthesiologists in their nations.

An important activity of the WFSA Publications Committee is the publication of Update in Anaesthesia. In 2005 the Update was published in English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian. The publication is available on the Internet at <www.nda.ox.ac.uk/wfsa> as well as distributed in paper format in those areas lacking online capabilities. Over the past year, the Publications Committee has worked to set up a robust scheme for continuing the donation of books and journals, which is led by our own Berend Mets, M.B., Ph.D. Anesthesiologists willing to donate books and journals are asked to register on the World Anesthesia Web site <www.world-anaesthesia.org>.

The WFSA Publications Committee has distributed an Anaesthesia Resource on CD-ROM produced by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland that includes a regional anesthesia manual, two years of Anaesthesia, an archive of Update in Anaesthesia and a section from the Oxford Handbook of Anaesthesia. In conjunction with the committee, editors of Anesthesiology, the British Journal of Anaesthesia and Anaesthesia and Intensive Care coordinate journal access and distribution in developing countries. Finally the Publications Committee has set up an editorial board of 18 members who will produce the “Tutorial of the Week,” which will be available on the Web at <www.world-anaesthesia.org> or by e-mail. It will provide straightforward education for anyone who registers. It is believed that this product will provide a powerful educational tool and, in time, allow the Publications Committee to develop a curriculum for many anesthetists working in isolation but who do have access to e-mail.

Dr. Bridenbaugh is Chair of the WFSA Foundation. WFSA has a record of minimizing administrative costs and placing funds into publications and educational activities, especially in the developing world. There is more to be done, though. Dr. Bridenbaugh is doing an outstanding job in structuring the WFSA Foundation to get information about all the wonderful WFSA publications and educational activities into the hands of potential donors. In accomplishing this, the WFSA Foundation also is sensitive to the need to avoid competition with the various foundations within each of the member national societies.

ASA can be proud of its past and continuing support of our colleagues throughout the world through WFSA. In a continuously violent and dehumanizing world, the scientific and cultural diplomacy aspects of WFSA are our hope for sanity and our way to safe anesthesia care for our fellow human beings.

John R. Moyers, M.D., is Professor, Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.