James E. (Jim) Cottrell, M.D.

ames E. (Jim) Cottrell, M.D., ASA 2003 President, will present the Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture at the ASA 2007 Annual Meeting on Monday, October 15, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. at Moscone Center in San Francisco. His presentation will address the public’s concerns about anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality, especially as it may affect the fragile brains of the very young (fetuses) and the old. His presentation is titled “We Care, Therefore We Are: Anesthesia-Related Morbidity and Mortality.”

The Rovenstine Lecture is a pinnacle of the ASA Annual Meeting. It honors Dr. Rovenstine and all of the distinguished anesthesiologists who have given the Rovenstine Lecture. Being chosen to give this lecture is one of the most distinguished honors bestowed by ASA.

Dr. Rovenstine served as chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at New York University Medical Center and Director of Anesthesiology at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He was a founding member and president of the American Board of Anesthesiology, ASA president in 1943-44 and, a half century ago, the 1957 recipient of the ASA Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Cottrell’s career path shares many similarities with that of Dr. Rovenstine: His formative scientific and academic career began at the Department of Anesthesiology at New York University Medical Center, he served ASA as its President and, like Dr. Rovenstine, Dr. Cottrell has invigorated the membership of ASA and attracted bright young physicians to our field by actively advocating the importance of education and research in anesthesiology.

Dr. Cottrell also has served as president of the Society of Academic Anesthesiology Chairs and president of the Society of Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care (SNACC). He has been the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery since its inception in 1989, and he was the 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from SNACC. He was the Rovenstine Lecturer (2004) and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award at the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists Postgraduate Assembly Meeting (2006). He has delivered more than 200 presentations around the world, authored more than 125 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals (including the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Neurosurgery) and co-edited three major textbooks. Dr. Cottrell also has written Under the Mask, a book designed to increase patient safety by increasing public understanding of anesthesiology, and he has published anesthesiology-related pieces in Newsday, the New York Times and the Washington Post. He also has discussed anesthesia-related issues on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” Show and ABC’s “20/20.”

On the international front, Dr. Cottrell is an honorary member of the European Academy of Anesthesiology, an honorary member of the Belgian Society of Anesthesia and Reanimation, an honorary member of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He has served on the Board of Directors of Doctors of the World, was the founding chair of the AIDS Action Foundation, and he has served on the Board of Directors of God’s Love We Deliver — an organization then dedicated to serving and delivering meals to homebound AIDS patients in New York City, his home for most of his career.

The flavor of the Rovenstine Lecture is enhanced by knowing the personal history of the recipient of this honor and by understanding some of the human experiences that helped to inspire his contributions to the betterment of our specialty. Jim Cottrell grew up in the small town of Chesapeake, West Virginia. His decision to enter medicine was highly influenced by his family physician, who served as a role model. Jim observed his family physician to be one of the most respected people in the community and someone to whom the community invariably turned at times of crisis. Since the age of 5, Jim could “think of nothing better” than becoming a doctor. He worked at the community hospital where his role model served as chief of staff, thus confirming his intense desire to become a physician. Although most of his hometown friends assumed that he would become a primary care doctor, as a medical student at West Virginia University Medical School, he became enamored of surgery and developed an interest in the academic process.

During his internship at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Jim rotated through anesthesiology — and then could “think about nothing better” than becoming an anesthesiologist. Jim knew that he wanted to teach. Recognizing his talent for education at a young age, his mother wanted him to become a school teacher. He was thus drawn to an academic career. After his first year of anesthesiology residency at Allegheny, he moved to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh so that he could do research under the mentorship of E.S. (Rick) Siker, M.D., whom Jim credits with lighting the fire of discovery early in his career. Dr. Cottrell gave his first research presentation at the New York Postgraduate Assembly in 1971.

After his respiratory research fellowship with Dr. Siker, Jim was drafted into the Navy as an anesthesiologist, where he served for two years and where his interest in anesthesiology for neurosurgical procedures germinated. It was there that he first recognized anesthesiology’s great challenge and opportunity to improve patient safety and outcome.

In 1974, Herman Turndorf, M.D., who had moved from West Virginia Medical School to chair the Anesthesiology Department at New York University (NYU), recruited Jim to coordinate neuroanesthesia. Jim collaborated on research projects with those in his own department and with neurosurgeons. He wrote his first textbook during that time, Anesthesia and Neurosurgery, with Dr. Turndorf, which is currently in process for its fifth edition (with Professor William Young of the University of California-San Francisco) and still one of the mainstays of residency education. Dr. Cottrell moved from NYU to SUNY Downstate to assume its chair in 1979. He is currently Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Regional Chairman of Anesthesiology at Long Island College Hospital and Lutheran Medical Center — all in Brooklyn, New York.

After years of distinguished service to ASA, Dr. Cottrell served as ASA President in 2003. When he became president, he saw that the morale of ASA members was down — reimbursement to anesthesiologists was falling at the same time that our nation was woefully short of anesthesiologists. One of Jim’s goals as ASA President was to enhance the enthusiasm of the membership — for the sake of their profession and for the importance of education and research in anesthesiology. His proudest accomplishments as ASA President include reformatting the Annual Meeting into subspecialty tracks, the addition of a Plenary Session on Translational Research, the addition of the Presidential Scholar Award and the Celebration of Research session.

The legacy that Dr. Cottrell hopes to leave the department he has chaired for 28 years is a group of people he recruited and mentored who can step into his shoes and effectively administer and advance the department. He not only mentored those in his own department but also provided mentorship to international anesthesiologists who have gone on to become academic chairs in many countries. Jim was recently in China and met many Chinese anesthesiologists who trained in his department’s research laboratories and who are now department chairs in China. They noted that with their Western training, the use of acupuncture during major surgical procedures continues to decrease … a major accomplishment, in Jim’s opinion.

Jim Cottrell’s personal life has been greatly enriched by his committed relationship with Joseph Lovett, a film and television producer and his partner for more than 30 years. His relationship with Joe provided a view to life outside of medicine, including an extraordinary involvement with contemporary art. As they collected art, Jim and Joe met and supported many young artists. Their contemporary art collection has traveled the world and is now on its fifth tour. Additionally Dr. Cottrell enjoys downhill skiing, scuba diving, travel and (now that his knees no longer tolerate jogging) biking (with a helmet, of course).

Jim Cottrell was attracted to anesthesiology because he was intellectually engaged by our specialty and because he saw an opportunity to teach and do research that would improve patient safety and outcomes. He realized that recruiting bright medical students into anesthesiology is critically important to the specialty’s future and that ASA members need to be engaged in education and research. And now we, the members of ASA, can hardly think of anything better!

M. Christine Stock, M.D., is James E. Eckenhoff Professor and Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.