By Mark Singleton, MD, FASA
The California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA), along with many other state component societies of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), celebrates its 75th year since being founded in 1948.
On an occasion such as this, it seems appropriate not only to revel in our accomplishments as a medical specialty, but also to view those achievements in the context of history. The CSA Committee on History, in collaboration with the ASA and Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, has created a short three-minute, public-facing, animated video presentation that tells the “Story of Anesthesia.”
Although healers, shamans, and physicians have been important in societies since ancient times, they were often feared and mistrusted because of the secrets and power they appeared to exercise.
The era of modern medicine, providing reliable, predictable, and accurate diagnoses and treatment, is a very recent human achievement, following discoveries in the basic sciences of the 18th and 19th centuries. The world of our grandparents and great grandparents was one in which maternal and infant death from childbirth, childhood morbidity and mortality from infectious disease, and low life expectancy was common and accepted. Perhaps the COVID-19 and other pandemics will be viewed one day as events of the past, no longer to be feared.
We live and work in the circumstances of Now, with the stresses and burdens of our regulated, scrutinized, and high-accountability work environments. It is therefore useful and rewarding to look at where we are in the evolving path of our profession, and to gain some perspective and appreciation of our specialty in that panorama.
This short film, “The Story of Anesthesia,” is intended to help celebrate CSA’s 75 years as a professional society representing the medical specialty of Anesthesiology. We are proud to share it with you here.