President's Message

Dear Colleague,

Thank you for your support of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society during 2011; your membership has enabled us to accomplish so much this year.

• The 2011 Annual Meeting was a great success with strong scientific CPD accredited content and entertaining social events. As a testament to your Society’s “commitment to innovation and excellence in developing high-quality CME/CPD programs”, the CAS was provided with the 2011 Royal College Accredited CPD Provider Innovation Award. The RCPSC letter noted that they were “impressed with CAS’s submission and the innovative administrative tool” and that the CAS process “to improve the administrative effectiveness of the management of a complex multi-day meeting and to improve adherence to the accreditation standards of the Royal College is commendable”.
  
  
• Committed to advocacy, the CAS has been monitoring the issue of anesthesia drug shortages. We wrote to the Federal Minister of Health suggesting monitoring of the pharmaceutical supply and a strategic reserve of essential medications as important initiatives. In response, the federal Health Minister has since asked officials to explore the problem and have also written to generic drug manufacturers asking for voluntary reporting of shortages. To follow-up on the situation, the CAS has joined forces with a coalition of concerned health groups; recent discussion included the establishment of a surveillance system for the Canadian drug supply.
  

The CAS needs your membership commitment so that together we can accomplish even greater things in the coming year. Our mission is to enable members to excel in patient care through research, education and advocacy, and as such, your CAS membership is also an investment in your professional career!

Over the years, CAS has been fortunate to preserve a collection of many pieces of anesthesia equipment. Your membership dues also maintain the important CAS Archives and Artifacts for future generations.

Please renew your membership today! May I kindly ask that when you do, to please consider donating generously to our foundations, the Canadian Anesthesia Research Foundation (CARF) and the CAS International Education Foundation (CAS IEF) who continue their great work on behalf of Canadian anesthesiologists. The World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists has challenged Canada to purchase 250 pulse oximeters for Rwanda. A $250 donation to the CAS IEF Oximetry Project will put this essential safety device – with training materials – into the hands of colleagues who need it most.

I hope you will agree with me that by continuing your membership you will benefit as a member and that our patients will benefit from continued improvements in the quality and safety of anesthesia services.

Please feel free to contact me at president@cas.ca or the CAS office at membership@cas.ca if you have any questions.

We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and we could not have done it without you!

Looking forward to your continued involvement with the CAS.

Richard Chisholm, MD FRCPC
President