Mr. Burton A. Dole, Jr., was honored at the 1997 APSF Annual meeting in October as the recipient of the APSF Distinguished Achievement Award.
The success of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, which was incorporated in 1985, is due in no small measure to the continuing contributions of Burton Dole. Mr. Dole, a founding member of the APSF and its Board of Directors, served as its first Treasurer. During his early tenure in that capacity, he was responsible for obtaining three consecutive annual grants from the Parker B. Francis Foundation, without which the initial programs of the APSF would no have been possible.
Mr. Dole’s contributions to patient safety include 31 years of leadership in the medical device industry, initially with the Hewlett Packard corporation and subsequently as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Puritan Bennett Corporation. During this time, the organizations he led invented, manufactured, and supported many of the diagnostic and therapeutic tools used worldwide by anesthesiologists and critical care practitioners. His background in these areas made him an invaluable resource to the goals of anesthesia patient safety.
Mr. Dole has served as APSF’s Vice-President since 1990 and as Chairman of its Corporate Advisory Council since 1993. In the latter capacity, his efforts have yielded increases in the number of and amount from corporate funding sources, permitting the expansion of programs dedicated to improving the safety of patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical, diagnostic and obstetrical procedures. Mr. Dole’s wisdom and insights have led to productive collaboration between the specialty of anesthesiology and the medical device and pharmaceutical industries as well as with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, all working jointly to improve safety in anesthesia.
In recognition of his dedicated service, the Executive Committee of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation was extraordinarily pleased to confer upon Mr. Dole the APSF Distinguished Achievement Award. At time of the presentation at the meeting, proceedings stopped while there was an extended standing ovation in honor of Mr. Dole.