The place of research and the role of academic anaesthetists in anaesthetic departments

The speciality of anaesthesia developed because of its fundamental contribution to health care, including the prevention of pain from surgery, respiratory, and critical care medicine, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and pain medicine. Through these contributions anaesthesia became an important component of the medical profession. To continue our position in medicine, our intellectual foundation must be maintained and augmented mainly via research. No matter what role they play, all members of an anaesthetic department must contribute to the past intellectual development of anaesthesia as a basis for outlining the future approaches in research, including basic science, applied, transitional, clinical, educational and economic research. The challenges to the anaesthetist–scientist include evaluation, funding, conflicts of interest, legal and fraud. The future of the anaesthetic profession is mainly with its intellectual resources, especially research as the basis of improved patient care, and to have a major impact on the future of medicine overall.