Dr. Stoelting Elected President as Dr. Pierce Moves to Become Executive Director
Significant changes in the top leadership of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation were adopted by the Board of Directors at the foundation’s Annual Meeting held prior to the American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting in San Diego in October.
Ellison C. “Jeep” Pierce, Jr., M.D., APSF President since the creation of the foundation in 1985, stepped down as President and immediately was named the new APSF Executive Director. In this role, Dr. Pierce succeeds E.S. “Rick” Siker, M.D., now retiring, who served as Executive Director with energy, insight, and distinction since 1992. Dr. Siker, ASA President in 1973, recipient of the ASA Distinguished Service Award in 1983, and Chairman of Anesthesiology at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh 1962-1992, was the original Secretary of the APSF.
Robert K. Stoelting, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesia at Indiana University School of Medicine, was elected the new President of the APSF to succeed Dr. Pierce.
Dr. Pierce was also honored at the ASA meeting as the recipient of the 1996 ASA Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor the society can bestow, which is awarded to acknowledge meritorious service and achievement during a career in anesthesiology. Dr. Pierce, originally from North Carolina, was graduated from the University of Virginia and Duke University Medical School before training in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was affiliated with Harvard Medical School from 1962 through this year and was Chairman of Anesthesia at the New England Deaconess Hospital 1982-1995. Intensely involved in multiple facets of the ASA for nearly four decades, Dr. Pierce was ASA President in 1984 and the Rovenstine Lecturer in 1995. He has received a multitude of other honors, including as an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists of the U.K. in 1988 and recipient of the U.S. FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation in 1988. Dr. Pierce will bring his distinguished background, energy, and talents to the APSF administrative office now as his main professional endeavor and will strive to help the APSF continue and extend its many efforts for the cause of anesthesia patient safety into the next century.
Dr. Stoelting, most recently ASA Vice-President for Scientific Affairs until this year, is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, who received his undergraduate and medical educations at Indiana University before anesthesiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco. After two years at the NIH, Dr. Stoelting joined the faculty (Anesthesia and Pharmacology) at Indiana University in 1970, rising rapidly to become Professor and Chairman of Anesthesia in 1977. Also extensively involved in ASA committees and administration for many years, Dr. Stoelting was a District Director before becoming Vice-President for Scientific Affairs. Possibly best known as an educator for his prodigious and prestigious authorship of important and very widely used textbooks (Basics of Anesthesia, Pharmacology and Physiology in Anesthetic Practice, and Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease as well as co-editing Clinical anesthesia with Drs. Barash and Cullen and editing periodicals such as the Yearbook o Anesthesiology and Advances in Anesthesia), Dr. Stoelting has been a Director and the President of the American Board of Anesthesiology. He has been Chairman of the ACGME Anesthesiology Residency Review Committee, and is a Director of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. This Spring, he will deliver the T.H. Seldon Memorial Lecture to be entitled “Anesthesiology — a medical specialty with unique challenges and opportunities” at the Annual Meeting of the International Anesthesia Research Society (for which he has also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees). Dr. Stoelting brings this truly remarkable background to his new role as the leader to he APSF, which will benefit greatly as it moves forward into the next century from the vision and wisdom Dr. Stoelting has gained from the extraordinary breadth and depth of his career.
Dr. Stoelting was warmly greeted by the APSF Directors at their October meeting and he plans to share his impressions and insights in a summary article in the upcoming Spring issue of the APSF Newsletter.
Dr. Eichhorn, Professor and Chairman of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi, is Editor of the APSF Newsletter.