Through this historical timeline, we invite you to reflect on the foundation, some of the key moments and people who made the International Anesthesia Research Society and Anesthesia & Analgesia what it is today.

Click the buttons below to view important events from other timeframes.

2006

James D. Marks, MD, PhD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Beauty And The Beast:  From Botox To Botulism, Pharmaceutical To Bioweapon” at the IARS 2006 Annual Meeting.

After an extensive and competitive search by the IARS Board of Directors, Steven Shafer was selected as Editor-in-Chief. Shafer is an academic anesthesiologist whose research focus is pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Shafer created a new look for the Journal in its printed and online versions.

Dr. Steven Shafer (2006-2015) took the helm of the Journal as the sixth Editor-in-Chief. He continued development of the electronic edition enhancing interactivity and facilitating continuing medical education and links to OpenAnesthesia.org. He led the charge in identifying and combating plagiarism and fraud in anesthesia publication. He further expanded the editorial content and correspondence sections of the Journal to amplify the significance of its content, and support subsequent debate. Dr. Shafer enhanced the interactivity of the on-line Journal using a multimedia approach, creating and encouraging links to innovative sites such as OpenAnesthesia.org.  During Shafer’s tenure the impact factor of Anesthesia & Analgesia increased from to 2.1 in 2006 to 3.4 in 2012, placing it in the top tier of anesthesiology journals. 

An important aspect of Shafer’s role as Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia & Analgesia, has been his active and ongoing dialog with the IARS Board of Trustees. He engaged with the Board of Trustees in strategic planning, and has increased the exchange of ideas between the Board of Trustees and the Editorial Board. 

2007

75^th Anniversary of IARS

Tony Yaksh, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Spinal Drug Delivery: Technology, Biology, And Toxicology” at the IARS 2007 Annual Meeting.

The Board of Trustees hired a new Executive Director, Thomas Cooper. 

Dr. Lawrence Saidman joined A&A as correspondence editor since 2007.

Annual Meeting began to incorporate a Science Symposium.

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) became affiliated with the Journal.

The SmartTots Scientific Advisory Board, a multidisciplinary team of researchers assigned to navigate our scientific direction, immediately designed and implemented a research agenda focused on determining whether results from the animal studies could be translated to humans, the primary goal of our first request for applications released in August of this year.

2008

Jonathan Moss, MD, PhD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Development Of Peripheral Opiate Antagonists: Morphine’s Secrets Revealed” at the IARS 2008 Annual Meeting.

The FDA and the IARS began working together to create an administrative structure and scientific framework for SmartTots capable of identifying key research questions and overseeing investigations to ensure effective allocation of resources. In keeping with the recommendation by the FDA, we adopted a multidisciplinary approach involving broad and direct input from multiple stakeholders including professional societies and industry. Pharmaceutical companies, professional organizations, and more than 40 medical and scientific experts from around the world have since joined SmartTots. 

January:

Anesthesiology decided to divest itself of subspecialty society affiliations. Dr. Shafer made a new home for the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP), and the American Society for Critical Care Anesthesiology (ASCCA) – now called the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA). 

2009

Jeanine Wiener-Kronish, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Challenges Facing Anesthesiologists” at the IARS 2009 Annual Meeting.

The IARS moved its office from Cleveland, Ohio to San Francisco, California, where it amalgamated with the Editorial Office with a new staff (save for Ms. Laura Kuhar, who was with the IARS for 35 years at the time). The centralized office facilitated the productive integration of all the operational activities of the IARS – Anesthesia & Analgesia, the Annual Scientific Meeting, and support of research and education in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine. This development was not only in alignment with the strategic missions of the IARS, but has also enhanced teamwork between the editorial and IARS staff, increased operational efficiency and realized substantial cost savings.

A Journal Strategic Planning Committee (JSPC) was formed that included the Editor-in-Chief, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, the IARS Executive Director, the Director of Publishing and Strategic Partnerships and a senior BOT  member as Journal Liaison. This Committee met twice a year to discuss financial issues of importance to both the Journal and the BOT, and steered the recent renewal of the Journal contract with Lippincott Williams Wilkins. The JSPC also promoted the development and close association of the IARS and the Journal with OpenAnesthesia.org, an exciting on-line interface with great appeal to residents and younger anesthesiologists, as well as an iPad version of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

A major activity of the IARS, the Annual Congress was renamed the Annual Meeting. Through this time the IARS has conducted 98 meetings, omitting only those coinciding with World War II (1942-45) and the first WFSA meeting in 1955. Most meetings have been held in the United States (with a tradition of a meeting in Hawaii every five years), but other venues have included Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Canada and England.

For many years, two Trustees working with the IARS Head Office essentially ran the Annual Congress. This model evolved into an Annual Meeting Committee, still led by two Trustees, but which reached outside the Board of Directors for new energy and ideas.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approached the IARS with a proposal to launch a private-public partnership to study the safety of anesthetics and sedatives in young children. This initiative was developed in response to a growing concern that anesthetics and sedatives may impair mental development in young animals. The FDA chose the IARS for this partnership because it considered the Society to be apolitical, independent and capable of garnering the scientific and financial resources required for this unique project.

Responding to growing concerns that anesthetics may impair mental development in young animals, the FDA and the IARS launched a public-private partnership (SmartTots), to raise $30,000,000 to support research needed to determine the safest sedatives and anesthetics for young patients. 

As part of the partnership with the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA), the IARS pledged $1,000,000 over five years to the SCA Foundation in support of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia research projects.

January:

Changes made to the Journal beginning in 2009 included:

• Publish Ahead of Print: Beginning in 2009, Anesthesia & Analgesia will publish articles electronically several days after the author has approved the galley proofs.
• Public Access for Funded Manuscripts: As of January 2009, our publisher, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, will deposit all manuscripts funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Wellcome Trust, and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in PubMed Central on behalf of the authors.
• Patient Consent for Case Reports and Letters to the Editor: Anesthesia & Analgesia requires that all Case Reports and Letters to the Editor that describe individual patient care be accompanied by a sentence stating that the patient, parent, or next of kin has agreed to publication of the case, or an explanation of why such approval from the patient, parent, or next of kin has not been obtained.
• Author Role Disclosure: Anesthesia & Analgesia requires that each author explain his or her role in the manuscript.
• New Cover Letter: Anesthesia & Analgesia now requires copyright transfer at the time of submission, conditional (of course) on the manuscript being accepted for publication.
• Clinical Trial Registration: Journal now requires that all clinical trials (except those that involve retrospective review or incidental observation) be registered, either at www.clinicaltrials.gov (available to investigators worldwide) or a similar registry of the investigator’s choosing.
• The Open Mind: This issue introduces a new forum, The Open Mind, where readers can submit thoughtful, scholarly, and well-referenced viewpoints to stimulate discussion. Appearing in this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia is our first The Open Mind commentary “Do No Harm” by Mark Zornow.

July:

OpenAnesthesia® was launched. OpenAnesthesia® (http://www.openanesthesia.org/) was created by Edward Nemergut, and is a joint IARS/Anesthesia & Analgesia initiative directed to resident scholarship.

2010

Michael F. Roizen, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Sweet Sixteen:  A Life Just Starting: Yours” at the IARS 2010 Annual Meeting.

After considerable discussion and planning, the partnership of the IARS and FDA was unveiled as SmartTots (Strategies for Mitigating Anesthesia Related neuro-Toxicity in Tots). (The program was introduced as SafeKids, but the title was changed when it was discovered that another entity was already using this name). 

Guided by a joint IARS-FDA Steering Committee, a multidisciplinary Scientific Advisory Board was formed.  SmartTots appointed as its Executive Director, Michael Roizen, a noted academic anesthesiologist, a well-known health advocate having a particular interest in the issue of neurotoxicity in the very young, and a proven expertise in gathering funds for such a major enterprise.

More than 250 physicians and scientists attended the SmartTots inaugural scientific symposium that took place at the 2010 IARS Annual Meeting in Honolulu. Guided by Roizen and his Executive Board, SmartTots (www.SmartTots.org) sought to raise substantial funds from a range of donors, to support the research needed to determine the safest agents to be used for the youngest patients requiring sedation or anesthesia.

Indicative of the enhanced interaction between the IARS Office and the Editorial Office, a Director of Publishing and Strategic Partnerships was appointed.

2011

David L. Sackett, OC, FRSC, MD, MDHC, ScD, FRCP, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “The Tribulations of Not Performing Trials” at the IARS 2011 Annual Meeting.

During the IARS 2011 Annual Meeting, Dr. Roizen announced a $200,000 contribution made by the IARS to “jump start” funding for SmartTots. Dr. Roizen immediately complemented the IARS donation with a contribution of his own, an annual $50,000 challenge grant for the next 20 years, a $1 million pledge. This challenge grant is intended to match contributions made by “physicians and the general public.”

The 14,719 individual subscribers to Anesthesia & Analgesia included 12,719 IARS members as well as 2,000 non-members. In addition, there were 2,526 institutional subscribers.

Shafer was appointed to a second five-year term by the IARS Board of Trustees.

George Bause, MD, MPH, Honorary Curator for the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, photographed and composed the 1/2009 and 6/2011 cover pictorials for Anesthesiology, and from 2009-current he has composed vignettes and pictorials for over 120 different “Anesthesiology Reflections.”

FDA grant awarded to support SmartTots through 2016.

October:

George Bause, MD, MPH, Honorary Curator for the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, emailed Nancy Lynly at Anesthesia & Analgesia about design a pictorial cover around the Loving Cup trophy for the October 2012 issue cover of A&A. The design of the cover went another direction.

2012

90^th Anniversary of IARS

James P. Bagian, MD, PE, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Patient Safety: Anesthesia Can Lead the Way” at the IARS 2012 Annual Meeting.

Dr. Bause put out a flyer about the “loving cup” trophy being given to Francis and Laurette McMechan in absentia at the 1937 Congress of Anesthetists.

Two new programs were introduced at the 2012 IARS Annual Meeting:

• A Clinical Research Symposium, organized by the European Society of Anaesthesiology: The Role of Specialist Societies in Clinical Outcomes Research: How Can They Take a lead?
• A Symposium for Anesthesiology Residents, focusing on resident education and advancement and featuring a “best resident abstract” competition judged by an expert panel of anesthesia educators.

This separation of the IARS governing board and the Journal editorial leadership, endured until 2012 when Dr. Steven Shafer was appointed to the IARS Board of Trustees (BOT) as a non-voting ex-officio member. This appointment strengthened the communication between the IARS BOT and the Journal Editor-in-Chief, while maintaining the editorial independence of Anesthesia & Analgesia.  

Dr. Lawrence Saidman began a companion journal to A&A, A&A Case Reports. Saidman accepted the position of EIC for a new journal, A&A Case Reports.

Two SmartTots grants awarded. Robert Block, PhD, received a grant for $100,000 for his project, “General Anesthesia During Human Infancy and Brain Development.” Caleb Ing, MD, was awarded a grant for $100,000 for his project, “Anesthetic Exposure Duration and Effects on Cognitive and Language Ability.”

January:

Part of the Silicon Jubilee or 90^th anniversary of Anesthesia & Analgesia was “Then & Now” editorial commentaries contrasting articles published in the first years of Current Researches in Anesthesia & Analgesia with the science and practice of anesthesia today.

A beige triangle appears in the lower right corner of the cover. The new cover is the iPad version of Anesthesia & Analgesia, developed for the Journal by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, our publisher. When the beige button is pressed, the viewer is taken to the table of contents. Using the vertical scroll feature of the iPad, the reader can scroll up and down the table of contents. In the printed version of Anesthesia & Analgesia, page numbers appear on the right side of the table of contents. In the digital version, buttons take you to the article.

2013

Two SmartTots grants awarded. Lena Sun, MD, received a grant for $200,000 for her project, “Pediatric Anesthesia NeuroDevelopment Assessment (PANDA) Study.” Jeffrey Sall, PhD, MD, was awarded a grant for $200,000 for his project, “Recognition Memory Following Early Childhood Anesthesia.” 

The Journal stopped publishing Case Reports replacing them with a new online journal, Anesthesia & Analgesia Case Reports naming Lawrence Saidman as Editor-in-Chief.

David M. Gaba, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Simulation – Another (Unsung) Gift to Medicine from Anesthesiology” at the IARS 2013 Annual Meeting.

2014

Angela Enright, OC, MB, FRCPC  (canceled) and Davy C. Cheng, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FCAHS, CCPE, presented on her behalf the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Global Challenges in Anesthesia: Are We Doing the Enough?” at the IARS 2014 Annual Meeting.

May:

A&A published a thematic issue on the concept of the “Perioperative Surgical Home” (PSH). The American Society of Anesthesiologists had committed resources to create a learning collaborative of up to 50 health care institutions to create an “evidence-based road map” for the PSH.

December:

Dr. Lawrence J. Saidman stepped down as correspondence editor of Anesthesia & Analgesia, and as editor-in-chief (EIC) of A&A Case Reports on December 31, 2014.

2015

Eng H. Lo, PhD gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Causation and Collaboration for Translating Neuroprotection” at the IARS 2015 Annual Meeting.

Dr. Ansgar Brambrink was provided with funding from SmartTots for his project, “Long-Term Outcome of Single vs. Triple Anesthesia Exposure of Infant Monkeys.”

April:

A new Global Health section in Anesthesia & Analgesia, and a new type of manuscript,

“Global Health Reports” in A&A Case Reports was launched, which marks the creation of an important affiliation between the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

2016

John P.A. Ioannidis, DSc, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Impact in Evidence-Based Decision Making” at the IARS 2016 Annual Meeting.

Daniel Cole, MD, then President of the ASA and Alex Evers, MD, then Chair of the IARS Board of Trustees, brought together research and executive leaders from the ASA, AUA, FAER, and the IARS for a 2-day summit to discuss critical areas of research for the future of the specialty. This summit was fundamentally a success in that it generated the concept of a unified research mission and changed attitudes about working collectively together.

January:

Dr. Jean-Francois Pittet took over as the seventh Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. Born in Switzerland, Dr. Pittet is the first A&A EIC to come from outside North America. Although he has long resided and practiced in the US, he retains dual citizenship.

June:

Dr. Shafer stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of A&A.

July:

In an editorial, Drs. Pittet and Vetter announced some changes to Anesthesia & Analgesia, including:

• In response, the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network has been created to monitor, propagate, and promote the proper use of such guidelines. The primary goal of the EQUATOR Network is “to improve the quality of scientific publications by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of health research.” Furthermore, an increasing number of major, high-impact basic science, clinical, and health services journals recommend or require authors’ adherence to the applicable set of such guidelines for submitted manuscripts.
• Anesthesia & Analgesia now requires adherence to the applicable statement/guidelines and checklist for all submitted research-related manuscripts, while knowingly limiting those requirements that are unique to Anesthesia & Analgesia.
• Anesthesia & Analgesia has created new sections dedicated to Blood Management, Geriatric Anesthesia, Palliative Care and Cancer, and Trauma.
• There is a reconfigured section of Neuroscience and Neuroanesthesiology, which will closely align and collaborate with Geriatric Anesthesia. There is also a reconfigured section on Healthcare Economics, Policy, and Organization.

2016-2021

FDA grant awarded to support SmartTots.

2017

Victor J. Dzau, MD, gave the Seldon Memorial Lecture on “Vital Directions in Health and Medicine in Uncertain Times” at the IARS 2017 Annual Meeting.

2018

Lena Sun appointed as Medical Director of SmartTots.

Editorial by Drs. Pittet and Vetter reviewed accomplishments of past year.

• The Journal successfully implemented sections dedicated to and thus published papers on Blood Management, Geriatric Anesthesia, Cancer and Supportive Care, and Trauma. A new affiliation was established between the Journal and the Society for Airway Management, which naturally aligned with its Trauma section.
• The innately interrelated sections on Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine, Chronic Pain Medicine, and Pain and Analgesic Mechanisms are functioning very cohesively. The November 2017 thematic issue on “The Practice of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and the Opioid Abuse Epidemic” comprehensively addressed this major clinical, public health,and health policy topic.
• The Journal successfully strengthened its commitment to Global Health, with a series of papers from low- and middle-income countries and members of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists. A timely thematic issue on Global Health is scheduled for early 2018.
• A new affiliation was established between the Journal and the American Society for Enhanced Recovery. The resulting separate section devoted to Perioperative Medicine has brought surgeons to the Journal editorial board, further strengthening our team’s perspective, voice, and likely audience.
• The reestablishment of a separate Ambulatory Anesthesiology section reflects the increasing demand for and thus scope of fast-track, short-stay (“extended ambulatory recovery”) surgical admissions and the expansion of complex procedures outside the mainstream operating room.
• The Neuroscience and Neuroanesthesiology and Geriatric Anesthesia sections have been well aligned so as to foster and capitalize on their cross-disciplinary expertise.
• The reconfigured section on Healthcare Economics, Policy, and Organization is attracting a greater number and diversity of papers, including novel, timely, and controversial topics.
• The consolidated and dedicated section on Medical Education has promoted submissions, including original research, in this arena.

A&A Case Reports is retitled A&A Practice with a strategy to broaden its scope beyond case studies and include brief clinical studies covering unique perioperative or chronic pain-related clinical care of one to three patients; important teaching points or novel educational tools; or innovative solutions to perioperative services, patient safety, or global health management issues.

The book ‘100 Selected Case Reports from Anesthesia & Analgesia’ is published for IARS by Wolters Kluwer. It is a compendium of some of the most significant case reports to have appeared in A&A Case Reports, as selected by A&A Practice Senior Editors Drs. Markus Luedi and Mark Phillips.

George Mashour MD, PhD and Sachin Kheterpal, MD, MBA join the IARS Board of Trustees.

Colleen Koch, MD, MS, MBA, FACC becomes Board Chair of IARS.

IARS Trustees George Mashour, MD, PhD, and Beverley Ann Orser, MD, PhD, FRCPC, are inducted into the 2018 class of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for their professional accomplishments and service to the field of medicine and healthcare. NAM membership is considered one of the highest honors in the field.

IARS, AUA and SOCCA 2018 Annual Meetings were held April 28–May 1, in Chicago, IL.

Jeffrey R. Balser, MD, PhD, presented the T.H. Seldon Memorial Lecture: Personalizing Healthcare in the Era of Big Data at the IARS, AUA and SOCCA Annual Meeting.

2019

Through multiple meetings—including a face-to-face meeting in Baltimore, Maryland—in early 2019, the leaders of the 3 organizations (ASA, FAER and IARS) Drs Deborah Culley, James Eisenach, and Colleen Koch developed a charter for the effort aided by the assistance of Anne-Marie Mazza, Senior Director, Committee on Science, Technology and Law at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), who shared how the main science policy operating arm of NASEM, the National Research Council, approaches this process. The mission was to advance scientific discovery and health care policy through the development and dissemination of research in anesthesiology, perioperative, and pain medicine. The vision of the ARC is to be the go-to resource for state-of-the-art review, synthesis, and future recommendations in Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine research. Over the next few months, the administrative structure and processes for ARC were sketched out, and a meeting was organized in the summer of 2019 to gather broader input.

The Anesthesia Research Council (ARC) is established.  In early 2019, the leaders of three organizations (ASA, FAER and IARS), Drs. Deborah Culley, James Eisenach, and Colleen Koch developed a charter for the effort aided by the assistance of Anne-Marie Mazza, Senior Director, Committee on Science, Technology and Law at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).  A task force developed a budget and multi-year plan. A mission was created: to provide independent, trustworthy synthesis and advice to address complex challenges by mobilizing expertise, practice and knowledge in science, engineering, and medicine.  A vision developed: to promote scientific evidence to make decisions that benefit humanity, especially those who require administration of anesthesia, are critically ill, or who experience pain.  ARC activities are overseen by a Steering Committee.

Dr. Lena Sun steps down as Medical Director of SmartTots.

Emery Brown, MD, PhD, becomes Board Chair of IARS.

IARS, AUA and SOCCA 2019 Annual Meetings were held May 17-20, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Michael J. Strong, MD, FRCP(C), FANN, FCAHS from Western University presented the T.H. Seldon Memorial Lecture — Health Research Funding in the 21st Century: Not for the Faint of Heart at the IARS, AUA and SOCCA Annual Meeting.

The 2019 Kosaka Best Abstract Award Recipients were:

• Kosaka Best Basic Science Research Award Winner: Viola Neudecker, MD
  Abstract Title: GFAP expression in the visual cortex is increased in juvenile non-human primates that were exposed to anesthesia during infancy.
• Kosaka Clinical Research Award Winner: Ming Ann Sims, MBBS
  Abstract Title: Sustaining the Gains – A 6 Year Follow through of the Impact of a Hospital Wide Patient Safety Strategy on Global and Anesthetic Patient Safety Outcomes.
• Kosaka Scholars Presentation Award Winner: Jacob Basak, MD, PhD
  Abstract Title: Bacterial Sepsis Increases Fibrillary Amyloid Load and Neuroinflammation in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s disease Pathology.