December 2009

December 2009

Another year has passed. Very soon it will be Christmas and hopefully you will have some time off from a busy job schedule. It is also time to celebrate everything we have achieved this year.
As you will recall from my previous messages, we in the Board of SSAI are very eager to publish the SSAI Position Paper on The future of Scandinavian Anaesthesiology. In early spring we had a very successful web-based survey where everyone was invited to state their opinions on the further development of our speciality. We presented parts of the results from the web-based survey during the Odense SSAI congress in June. The full report will be available at a later stage in Acta. One key finding worth mentioning, however, is that the large majority of members support further sub-specialisation. Sub-specialisation may take place inside the anaesthesia pillar, for example in paediatric or neuro-anaesthesia, or in one of the three other pillars of the speciality; intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, or pain medicine. Hence, the question is not whether this tendency towards sub-specialisation will or should continue to increase, it is more how to facilitate and organise such a development. Next, what should we call such sub-specialisation in official terms? A particular medical competence, an area of particular competence or what else is there to use? Through the SSAI advanced educational programs, we are ready to play an active role in the further development of our speciality.
We are now about to finish the SSAI Position Paper on The Future of Scandinavian Anaesthesiology. In September, the Writing Group met outside Stockholm. The inspiring surroundings secured progression of the work (FOTO1). The document will be available for comments early 2010. We certainly hope you will find it both controversial and helpful, and use it for further discussion. Check our web page www.ssai.info
Another reason to check the SSAI web page is all the news from both the Clinical Practice and Educational Committee. You will find new and improved advanced educational programs, as well as new clinical practice guidelines. The recently developed guideline on Emergency anaesthesia and Rapid sequence intubation should be extremely useful for us all.
This year also contained other successes; a major one being the Odense SSAI congress in June. Fully packed, excellent scientific and social program and only smiling faces – again thank you and congratulations to the Odense colleagues for making this happen! In June 2011, the next SSAI congress will be in Bergen, Norway. Mark the dates and join the crowd! But, for now I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!

Eldar Søreide
President SSAI

Sigga Kalman (Sweden), Eldar Søreide (Norway), Pertti Pere (Finland), Ole Nørrgaard (Denmark), Jannicke Mellin-Olsen (Norway) og Anders Åneman (Sweden) at work.

Tuesday, 29 November 2011 12:09:37