2007: A New Component, New Energy and New Directions

Victor G. Moulin

2007 has been a wonderful year full of opportunities for education and involvement as a medical student member of ASA. The 2007 Annual Meeting in San Francisco proved to be historic and bewildering for the medical students present. The new energy created by the meeting will hopefully translate into more medical student awareness, interest and involvement nationwide. The resolution to make the medical student delegation an independent component also passed, and, therefore, we want to reassure all members of ASA that the Medical Student Component will continue to move the specialty forward at the medical school level.

This year’s meeting was full of enthusiastic and energetic medical students who exchanged ideas for several hours and benefited from hearing about the future of the specialty from one of its pre-eminent leaders, Mark A. Warner, M.D. Additionally, residents from Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital and Emory University spoke and answered questions. Several students shared important information, including the delegate from the University of Connecticut who spoke of the new anesthesia interest group of 40 people at her medical school. The hope is that all the new interested students will become active ASA members!

To reiterate, the ASA Medical Student Component exists to get students interested in ASA, to give them resources and knowledge to educate them about anesthesiology, and to create forums and opportunities for students to become involved at every level. The officer duties of the Medical Student Component have been reorganized to better cater to the needs of the medical student members, who now number above 1,000. Among these 1,000 members, 79 medical students, representing 62 medical schools, are delegates to the ASA Medical Student Component. The ASA Medical Student Component officers, in our mission to support the needs of medical student members, independently maintain the ASA Medical Student Web site with the full support of ASA staff. Medical students who have attended the annual meeting have seen Dr. Warner, Alexander A. Hannenberg, M.D., and Mike P. Schweitzer, M.D., speak, with the last two years seeing 70 attendees from around the nation.

To continue the “Excellence in Education” mission of ASA, we are planning an independent curriculum for the medical students at the annual meeting, including I.V., airway and pain workshops. This curriculum can be accomplished by allocating medical student time at the already scheduled workshops, thus minimizing extra budgetary needs for medical student component activities. Because many medical students attend with a secondary purpose of meeting residents and program directors, we have, along with the Resident Component, plans to create a residency fair. The Residency Fair will become an annual event, and, hopefully, residents and their program directors will plan on attending.

Additionally, several academic educators on the ASA Committee on Residents and Medical Students have expressed willingness to conduct Problem-Based-Learning Discussion sessions for medical students at the annual meeting. We also plan to offer advanced cardiac life support instruction for medical students. Lastly, there are plans to expand our lectures into a full lecture series, attracting more world-class speakers. The ultimate goal next year is thus a multiday itinerary, independent of the resident itinerary, specifically for medical students.

In conclusion, many thanks are in order. First and foremost, to the ASA House of Delegates and the Board of Directors for approving the creation of the Medical Student Component and the allocation of funds for medical student activities. Secondly, we want to thank the Committee on Residents and Medical Students Chair Ronald L. Harter, M.D., for supporting the resolution and mentoring our organization since its creation. We also wish to thank the entire committee, which has shown us overwhelming support. Additionally, we wholeheartedly thank the Immediate Past President of the Resident Component, Paloma Toledo, M.D., and current President Christopher R. Cook, D.O., for their constant mentoring and coaching in the workings of ASA. Also, Emmett E. Whitaker, M.D., and Mark A. Hoeft, M.D., two previous chairs of the Medical Student Component, deserve many thanks for continuing to support ASA medical student activities during their residencies. Dr. Whitaker is currently continuing the creation of “The Medical Student Guide to Anesthesiology” and is compiling chapters from many leaders in academic anesthesiology. Finally, the staff of the ASA Executive Office has been extremely helpful in maintaining our Web site and electronic communications with members. Specifically, Denise M. Jones, Janice L. Plack, Anita Abbatacola and Sue Widell have made our initiatives possible. Finally, I wanted to thank the past officers of the component: Omayra L. Marrero, Alan T. Mann, Li Ma, Heather L. Daughters, Andrew C. Porter and R. Scott Stayner. They all worked tirelessly for the sake of the medical student members, who will surely benefit from all their efforts. The current officers, Omayra L. Marrero, Michael J. Oleyar, Saad Hussain, Uel J. Alexis, Nisheeth Rai and Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, are as dedicated as their predecessors, so I say with certainty that great things are to come for the Medical Student Component! I invite all members of ASA to visit our Medical Student Component Web page at www.asahq.org/msd.

Victor G. Moulin, is a fourth-year medical student, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.