The C. Ronald Stephen Resident Essay Contest

The Anesthesia History Association (AHA) sponsors an annual contest for the best essay on the history of anesthesia, pain medicine or intensive care. This contest is open to all residents and fellows in anesthesiology.

The purpose of the contest is to promote interest in the history of anesthesia and to advance professionalism in the specialty. Additionally this contest offers residents and fellows the opportunity to present their paper at a national meeting and to publish the results of their research.

The Resident Essay Contest is named for Dr. C. Ronald Stephen an anesthesiologist who was a revered teacher, researcher, clinician and anesthesia historian. Dr. Stephen died at age 90 in 2006. The essays must be written in English and be approximately 3,000 to 5,000 words in length. Judging will be in two stages. In the first stage the finalists will be chosen. These finalists will be announced at the AHA dinner meeting during the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting. From these finalists, the winners will be chosen on the basis of both content and delivery during the spring meeting of the AHA.

All the finalists will present their papers in a session of the AHA attended by a panel of judges. The panel of judges will make their final decision based on originality, appropriateness of topic, quality of the research, and delivery. Because the final judging will be at the time of the presentation at the spring meeting of the AHA, all who enter must agree to attend the meeting at which the presentations are made.

Essays must be submitted by the 10th of September, in order to be eligible for presentation at the spring AHA meeting of the following calendar year. If not received by that date they will be considered for the next year’s contest. The first, second, and third place winners receive $500 $200 and $100 respectively. Awards will be made during the AHA spring meeting. The three winners are required to submit their essays to the peer-reviewed Bulletin of Anesthesia History for possible publication.

To enter, essays should be sent to:
William Hammonds, MD, MPH
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
Medical College of Georgia
1120 15th Street
Augusta, GA 30912
whammonds@mcg.edu
Entries must be received on or before September 10, 2009