To the Editor

As a follow-up to the award which I received from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation in 1987, 1 am providing an update on the progress we have made on our research project The Canadian Four Hospital Study on Anesthetic Outcomes.

The pilot phase for this study was funded by the APSF and subsequently we were successful in obtaining a larger operating grant from the Department of Health and Welfare, Government of Canada. The work which we were able to perform during the period of the APSF funding enabled us to complete feasibility studies and thereby placed us in a position to acquire the larger grant.

At the time of this writing, we have successfully gathered data on 3 5,000 anesthetics administered at four Canadian hospitals and we are presently analyzing the volumes of data. We hope to present the results at an international meeting later this year. I think the results will prove very interesting and valuable for the field of anesthesia safety.

Once again, on behalf of my coinvestigators, Drs. Peter G. Duncan, W. D. B. Pope and W. A. Tweed, I would like to thank the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation for generously supporting our work and ensuring the success of our endeavours.

Marsha M. Cohen, M. D., FRCPC University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba