Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Anesthesiology was launched in 1988. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of anesthesiology is divided into 15 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Editors of the journal's and the Section Editors for this issue. EDITORS Paul G. BarashPaul G. BarashPaul G. Barash, MD is currently Professor of Anesthesiology at Yale Medical School, USA, and has served as Chair of the Department, as well as Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs. In addition to more than three hundred contributions to literature in the form of original scientific publications, reviews book chapters and abstracts, he is Senior Editor of the Clinical Anesthesia series of textbooks and electronic media. The Lippincott-Raven Interactive Anesthesia CD, of which he is Senior Editor, has received the international Folio Award as the best teaching CD in medicine, science and technology. He is also Senior Editor of the first anesthesia software designed specifically for personal digital assistants (PDA), Clinical Anesthesia for the PDA. As a cardiac anesthesiologist, he has been repeatedly named in the Best Doctors in America publication. Dr Barash served as chair of Multicenter Study for Perioperative Ischemia (McSPI) which is the largest group of investigators in the world studying perioperative cardiovascular complications; their publications have appeared in leading medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. He has served as President of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, the major professional group for his sub-specialty. In addition, he served as a senior examiner for the certification process of the American Board of Anesthesiology. Finally, he serves as consultant to NASA on Perioperative Medicine for Manned Space Flight (Anesthesia Pre and Post Flight Working Group). Hugo Van AkenHugo Van AkenDr Hugo Van Aken has been Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany since August 1995. From 1986 until 1995 he was Professor and Chair at the Department of Anaesthesiology of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He is currently Editor-in-Chief for Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology and Editor for Best Practice & Research: Clinical Anaesthesiology as well as a member of several anaesthetic international editorial boards and scientific societies. From 1999 to 2011 he has served as member of the Board of Trustees of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). From 2001 until the end of 2006, he was President of the DAAF (German Academy of Education in Anaesthesiology). From 2000 to 2004, he was President of the European Academy of Anaesthesiology (EAA). Following the amalgamation of the three major European anaesthesia organizations, he served as Secretary of the new European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) from 2005 to 2006. From 2008 to 2011 he has been Chairman of the National Anaesthesia Societies Committee (NASC) of the ESA. From 2007 to 2008 he was president of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive-Care Medicine (DGAI). Since 2009, he is Secretary General of the DGAI. Since 2012 he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiology (WFSA) and Liaison Officer for the World Health Organization (WHO) as member of the Executive Committee of the WFSA. Since 2013 he is founding chairman of European Patient Safety Foundation (EUPSF). Dr Van Aken has been an honorary member of the American Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA) since 1990. In 1992, he became an honorary member of the Polish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive-Care Therapy, and in 2000 he was made an honorary member of the Belgian Society of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA) and a fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FANZCA). In 2003, he was elected as an honorary member of the Association of Anaesthesiologists of Georgia and as an honorary member of the American Society of Anesthesiology. In 2007, he was awarded honorary membership of the Czech Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive-Care Medicine and in 2009 honorary membership of the German Society of Internal Medicine as well as honorary membership of the Dutch Society of Anaesthesiology. In 2009 he was appointed as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina). In 2012 he became an honorary member of the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology. Dr Van Aken is author of more than 549 articles in current content listed journals, and many chapters in national and international textbooks, and has a variety of major research interests including regional anesthesia, fluid management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, intestinal microcirculation and sepsis. SECTION EDITORS Thomas HachenbergThomas HachenbergDr Thomas Hachenberg earned his medical degree at the Westfälische-Wilhelms University Münster, Germany. He completed his residency training at the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the Westfälische-Wilhelms University Münster, Germany. He completed his scientific training at the Department of Clinical Physiology, Uppsala University Clinic, Sweden, and earned a doctor of medical science at Medical Faculty, Uppsala University, Sweden. He was Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Germany. His current position is Professor and Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. From 2007 to 2011 he was Dean of Clinical Affairs at the Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. His main fields of clinical and scientific interests are cardiothoracic anesthesia and lung function during anesthesia. Dr Hachenberg serves on the editorial bord of the journal Anästhesiologie, Intensivmedizin, Notfallmedizin, Schmerztherapie and has published a number of journal articles and book chapters related to cardiothoracic anaesthesia and respiratory physiology. He is editor of the textbook Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine in Thoracic Surgery. Dr Hachenberg has been an active member of several professional societies including the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, the European Society of Anesthesiology and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. Moritz A. KretzschmarMoritz A. KretzschmarMoritz A. Kretzschmar, MD, D.E.S.A. is a consultant in anaesthesiology at the University Hospital in Magdeburg, Germany, mainly working in cardio-thoracic anaesthesia. Dr Kretzschmar received his degree in 2005 from the university of Magdeburg, Germany after attending medical school in Magdeburg and Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. He completed his anaesthesiology residency training 2011 in Magdeburg. His main research interests are one lung ventilation, respiratory physiology and volatile anaesthetics. He has published research articles focused on different aspects of one lung ventilation, ventilation/perfusion assessment and volatile kinetics. Dr Kretzschmar has a second affiliation with Uppsala University, Sweden where he is participating in the PhD program of the medical faculty and is a member of different national and international professional societies. Alexander ZarbockAlexander ZarbockUniv.-Prof. Dr med. Alexander Zarbock is senior staff member of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Germany. He studied medicine at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf and graduated in 2003. In May 2003 he began his clinical training in the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Germany. In 2004 he finished his doctoral thesis. He graduated as a specialist in anesthesiology in 2010. In 2011 the graduation in intensive care medicine followed. In the context of a post-doctoral fellow stipend awarded by the German Research Foundation, he worked in the Cardiovascular Research Center of the University of Virginia and in the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (San Diego, CA, USA) from September 2005 to August 2008. Since September 2008 he works in Münster and became a senior staff anesthesiologist in December 2010. In the context of an Emmy-Noether stipend awarded by the German Research Foundation, he established his laboratory – in cooperation with the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine (Director: Prof. Vestweber) – at the MPI. In 2010 he got the venia legendi for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. In 2012, Dr Zarbock was awarded with a Heisenberg-Professorship from the German-Research Foundation. He was appointed as Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine in 2014. His basic scientific work focuses on the molecular mechanisms of leukocyte activation and recruitment in the context of systemic inflammatory diseases and acute kidney injury. His clinical research interests span various aspects of Critical Care Medicine, but center in critical care nephrology (renal replacement therapy), sepsis and organ protection. His current projects include measures to avoid acute kidney injury after surgery and the timing of renal replacement therapy in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury. He is also author and co-author of over 90 scientific articles and book chapters. Dr Zarbock received several national and international awards. Frances ChungFrances ChungDr Frances Chung is a Professor of the Department of Anesthesia, University Health Network, University of Toronto. She is a Past President for the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. She is the Co-Founder and the present President of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine. The research interest of Dr Frances Chung is in several areas: sleep apnea, ambulatory anesthesia and perioperative medicine. She developed the Postanesthesia Discharge Score for the safe discharge of patients from ambulatory surgical unit to home. This score has been adopted worldwide. Recently, she developed the STOP-Bang questionnaire, now a property of University Health Network. STOP-Bang is widely adopted by preoperative clinics and sleep clinics as a screening tool for patients with undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. In total, she has 230 publications and she was cited 7436 times with a h-index of 46. Her research work has been recognized through multiple awards including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada's McLaughlin-Gallie Visiting Professorship; the Research Recognition Award from the Canadian Anesthesiologist's Society; Research Award from the Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto; Fellow Teaching Award, University Health Network and the Distinguished Services Award from the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. Due to her expertise in ambulatory anesthesia, and obstructive sleep apnea, she was instrumental in developing ten Guidelines in ambulatory anesthesia, obstructive sleep apnea, morbid obesity, postoperative nausea and vomiting, and post-anesthesia care.