8th Annual Anesthesiology Refresher Course

[UPDATE: The conference is over and, once again, our hosts put on a great course. The True Vine Hotel was the best venue yet, with more attendees, and a wider range of topics than ever before. Great job everyone - can't wait till next year.]

We've just confirmed the curriculum for our 8th Annual Refresher Course in Anesthesiology to be held March 31st and April 1st 2011 in Kumasi, Ghana.

Incomplete and biased.

Jury-rigged anesthesia machine

Recently one of my colleagues returned from a large teaching institution in the medically under-served world – let’s say West Africa. We visit this institution frequently and have done so for many years. What he found on this trip was disheartening, and he noted problems in a report for the hospital administration. None of these problems are novel to those who deliver anesthesia in under-served environments - there are plenty of national surveys in the literature reflecting similar shortages. However, I think his observations are a useful illustration of problems facing our colleagues in the under-served world, even when they work in a teaching institution that receives regular donations of equipment, manpower and personnel from abroad.