The First Cardiac Anesthesiology Fellow, William A. Lell: A Brief History.

Fifty years ago, on August 1, 1971, William A. Lell became the first cardiac anesthesia fellow at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Anesthesiology, training with the world's first group of anesthesiologists whose clinical practice, teaching, and research efforts were exclusively devoted to cardiac anesthesia. Lell's early interest in cardiovascular medicine and how mentors, particularly at the MGH, influenced his early career development are recounted. The challenges a young pioneer faced in establishing and maintaining an academic cardiac anesthesia program during the initial and rapid growth of an exciting new subspecialty are described. Dr Lell's experience emphasizes the importance of seizing new opportunities and establishing meaningful working relationships with colleagues based on mutual trust as fundamental to successful career development and research in a new medical subspecialty.

No Proof Found of Anesthesia Involvement in Medical Misconduct During the Nazi Period. Investigation of the Alleged Purchase of 150 Inmates From Auschwitz Concentration Camp by Bayer to Test a New Narcotic.

A comprehensive investigation was undertaken to find evidence of the frequently reported, but never authenticated, "purchase of 150 inmates" from Auschwitz concentration camp by Bayer to test a new narcotic, resulting in the death of all investigated inmates. The archives of Auschwitz camp, Bayer, and the so-called former Soviet Union, where evidence of this alleged misconduct could have been saved, were investigated, but no evidence was found. Many records concerning concentration camp experiments on humans had been destroyed, but given the Nazis' meticulous record-keeping, the death of 150 inmates should have been recorded somewhere. Unethical medical research was indeed undertaken by physicians in concentration camps in many medical specialties, but no records regarding anesthesia-related medical misconduct during the Nazi period were found despite the allegations to the contrary that have been investigated here.

[Influence of Meyer Saklad's Lectures on the Development of Modem Anesthesiology in Japan -An Assessment of their Influence on the Publication of Special Issues on Anesthesiology in Japanese Medical Journals.]

Modern anesthesiology in Japan developed after Meyer Sakad's lectures at the Japanese-American Joint Conference on Medical Education (JAJCME) in 1950. To assess their influence on the subsequent advance in the specialty, the author surveyed Japanese clinical journals between 1949 and 1953 to find special issues on anesthesiology. Only two special issues were found in the journals published in March 1951 and February 1953. Because the former issue in the jour- nal "Rinsho" was published before Maeda's presidential address in 1951 at the Annual Meeting of the 51st Japan Surgical Society and Volpitto's lectures at the second JAJCME in 1952, the influence of Maeda's and Volpitto's lectures is excluded from this issue. The traces of Saklad's influence are detected only in two articles by Shimizu et al and Maeda et al, who enjoyed Saklad's lectures.

Celebrating Ruby: 40 years of NAS→SNANSC→SNACC→SNACC.

The 40-year history of the Society of Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care (SNACC) is reviewed. Annual meetings have been a focus for reporting scientific advances and providing education to those attending. The society has undergone significant maturation dealing with transitions in leadership and dealing with an existential threat and undergoing name changes reflecting growth and maturation in its mission. SNACC has collaborated with several other professional societies, most notable being the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), in which SNACC members have advocated for neuroscience in the ASA's educational and scientific activities, with several SNACC members being recognized through several major ASA awards and presentations. SNACC has been a strong advocate for educational advances, most recently addressing issues in neuroanesthesia fellowship accreditation and possibly certification. SNACC's initial North American focus has grown such that SNACC is now an international society dedicated to the advancement of neuroanesthesia, neurocritical care, neuromonitoring, and neuroscience.

Status of the anesthesia workforce in 2011: evolution during the last decade and future outlook.

The purpose of this review is to present a comprehensive assessment of the anesthesia workforce during the past decade and attempt forecasting the future based on present knowledge. The supply of anesthesiologists has gradually recovered from a deficit in the mid to late 1990 s. Current entry rates into our specialty are the highest in more than a decade, but are still below the level they were in 1993. These factors along with slower surgical growth and less capital available for expanding anesthetizing locations have resulted in greater availability of anesthesiologists in the labor market. Despite these recent events, the intermediate-term outlook of a rapidly aging population and greater access of previously uninsured patients portends the need to accommodate increasing medical and surgical procedures requiring anesthesia, barring disruptive industry innovations. Late in the decade, nationwide surveys found shortages of anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists to persist. In response to increasing training program output with stagnant surgical growth, compensation increases for these allied health professionals have moderated in the present. Future projections anticipate increased personnel availability and, possibly, less compensation for this group. It is important to understand that many of the factors constraining current demand for anesthesia personnel are temporary. Anesthesiologist supply constrained by small graduation growth combined with generation- and gender-based decrements in workforce contribution is unlikely to keep pace with the substantial population and public policy-generated growth in demand for service, even in the face of productivity improvements and innovation.

A tribute to Dr. Paul A. J. Janssen: entrepreneur extraordinaire, innovative scientist, and significant contributor to anesthesiology.

Dr. Paul Janssen was the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica and the developer of over 80 pharmaceutical compounds that proved useful in human, botanical, and veterinary medicine. He and his coworkers synthesized the fentanyl family of drugs, many other potent analgesics, droperidol, etomidate, and numerous other important medicines that were extremely useful in psychiatry, parasitology, gastroenterology, cardiology, virology, and immunology. Anesthesiology and medicine as a whole have benefited a great deal from his resourcefulness, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica--the first years (from lead to electrons).

Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavia is the official scientific journal of the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. It was founded in 1957 and we are thus now celebrating its 50th anniversary. This paper relates the history behind the start of the journal and describes its development until 1993.