Wednesday, March 23, 2011

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.

Monday, March 7, 2011

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.