Announcement of Candidates for Elected Office

he ASA Board of Directors has approved regulations for the announcement of candidates for elected ASA office in the NEWSLETTER. The regulations are as follows:

• On or before August 1, any candidate for ASA office may send to the Executive Office a notice of intent to run for a specific office.

• The Executive Office shall prepare a list of candidates submitted to be published in the September NEWSLETTER and the Handbook for Delegates.

• The announcement of candidacy does not constitute formal nomination to an office nor is it a prerequisite for being nominated.
• Nominations shall be made at the Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates for all candidates as prescribed by the ASA Bylaws.

Web Site Candidate Area
Beginning on August 1, this area is to include the picture, brief curriculum vitae and statement of principle for each avowed candidate for the current year’s election. ASA caucus chairs will be asked to review and approve the format of materials submitted by ASA officer candidates.

Nominations Sought for Media Award

ach year ASA accepts entries for the Philip S. Weintraub Media Award, a distinction given to one or more outstanding media presentations that effectively inform and educate the public about the practice of anesthesiology.

The Committee on Communications encourages members to submit or nominate local media presentations from broadcast (television or radio) and print (newspaper or magazine) media and Web-based news site articles. Increased interest generated in this award will result in a greater number of presentations on the subject of anesthesiology.

The winner receives a plaque and the opportunity to attend the presentation ceremony during the ASA Annual Meeting. The 2007 Media Award will be presented on Sunday, October 14, at the ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Deadline for the submission of entries is June 1, 2007, for media presentations released between June 1, 2006, and May 31, 2007. Any entries received after the deadline will be carried over to the next year.

Winners of the 2006 award included Joseph T. Hallinan of the Wall Street Journal and NBC “Dateline” producers Matthew Fields, Karen McKinley and Maia Samuel. Mr. Hallinan received his award for a June 21, 2005, article “Heal Thyself — Once Seen as Risky, One Group of Doctors Changes Its Ways,” which focused on the successful efforts of anesthesiologists, ASA and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation to increase patient safety and lower liability premiums.

The September 25, 2005 Dateline television production “Modern Anesthesia” explored anesthesia awareness and how ASA and other individuals and organizations are dealing with this rare but troubling event.

Up to four ASA Media Awards may be given each year for media presentations that inform and educate the public about the medical practice of anesthesiology.

All entries should be sent to Michael H. Entrup, M.D., Chair, Committee on Communications, American Society of Anesthesiologists, 520 N. Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068-2573.

Call for ABA/ASA Joint Council Editors

he ABA/ASA Joint Council on In-Training Examinations is seeking 15-20 junior editors. The commitment for a junior editor is to accept training and feedback in question writing from senior editors and Joint Council members and to prepare 15 multiple-choice questions per year from assigned sections of the content outline.

In the future there may also be opportunities to create other innovative types of questions such as interactive patient management sequences and computer “hot spot” questions using videos or still images.

Junior editors would serve four-year terms, an activity that would be acknowledged with certificates, and be eligible for promotion to a senior editor position and nomination to be one of 14 members of the Joint Council, which has responsibility for the yearly ABA Part I and ABA/ASA In-Training Examinations.

The ABA/ASA Joint Council and the American Board of Anesthesiology have separated junior editor activities and oral examiners activities. Individuals may be involved in both activities, i.e., being a Joint Council editor does not preclude one from being an ABA examiner; but the nomination processes and activities are separate, the first through the ABA/ASA Joint Council and the second through ABA.
To be eligible to be a Joint Council junior editor, one must be an ABA diplomate with a valid certificate. If selected for this activity, one must be enrolled and active in the ABA Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology (MOCA®) process whether or not the ABA diplomate’s certificate is time limited. In other words, if you were certified by ABA before 2000, you must be willing to enroll in the MOCA program and complete MOCA activities in order to participate as a junior editor.

The nomination process requires a letter of nomination from another ABA diplomate and a curriculum vitae. This information must be received by Judy Jacobson in the ASA headquarters office by May 31, 2007, in order to be considered.

The screening process will involve a review of the letters of nomination and curriculum vitae. A group of finalists will be selected. That group will receive a set of instructions on writing multiple-choice questions and an assignment to write and submit three questions over approximately 30 days. Those submitted questions will be reviewed by members of the Joint Council, and the final selection will be made after that review.

Final decisions will be made sometime this fall. The new junior editors will receive question assignments in late 2007 or early 2008.