Lessons Learnt in My Journey as President of the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA) (2024–25)

It was a great learning experience, with my one year as the President of the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA) for the year 2024–25. I had the pleasure of attending 48 ISA meetings in 34 cities across 18 states in India. One common factor that was palpable was the passion to serve ISA, which in turn would strengthen patient safety and good surgical outcomes. I learnt a lot from every conversation, every colleague, and every branch that I visited. It was indeed profound. I learnt that anaesthesiologists have taken upon themselves the responsibility to offer their services in areas with limited resources. Apart from their services inside the operation theatre, they have extended their services to critical care, emergency room, trauma resuscitation, acute pain service, labour analgesia, organ retrieval in brain dead, pain clinic, simulation leads, public health proponents, and administrators. This rich diversity of roles played by anaesthesiologists redefines the abilities, capabilities, and potentials possessed by anaesthesiologists. One of the important goals of the ISA National Governing Council for this year was to decrease perioperative morbidity and mortality. A survey was conducted nationwide to find out the common causes of perioperative complications. Six common causes were identified, and based on this, an ISA Simulation Module was created, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed with the Heads of 40 Simulation centres across India. These simulation centres conducted 1-day workshops based on the ISA module in several centres across India. The feedback from the workshop participants has been very positive. This would be an ongoing program of ISA National. Thanks to Dr Vaibhavi Uphadhye, Pune, for her leadership, The National President of ISA has been appointed as a permanent member of the Niti Aayog Expert Committee to improve the critical care ecosystem in the country. The committee’s inputs will be conveyed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. When I attended the first meeting in the Niti Aayog office in New Delhi, I felt very happy to be an anaesthesiologist as the Committee Chair in his briefing said 80% of the critical care work is being done by the anaesthesiologists in the country. We thought it was prudent to collaborate with global organisations, and I am happy to share that this year we signed an MOU with the American Society of Anaesthesia and the American Society of Enhanced Recovery. We also had deliberations with the President of the European Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (ESIAC). The collaboration would be on education, research, and advocacy. ISA became the fourth largest member society of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), this year. We have moved from the 12th to the 4th position. ISA is bidding to conduct the World Congress of Anaesthesia in 2030 in India. We have submitted our application. Interestingly, apart from me serving as the Secretary of WFSA, we have Dr Anju Grewal serving as the Editor-in-Chief of Anaesthesia Tutorial of the Week, Dr Bala Bhaskar, UIA Deputy Editor, Dr Gita Nath and Dr Rakesh Garg being appointed as Co-Editors-in-Chief of AOLC, the new digital learning platform of WFSA, Dr. Sheila Myatra Ninan, who contributed actively to WFSA as the Chair of Critical Care Committee, 7 ISA Members serving seven different WFSA Committees, and six centres of excellence across India who currently offer WFSA fellowships. It was also historical that the WFSA Hybrid Board meeting was held alongside ISACON Raipur, thanks to WFSA President Dr Daniela Filipescu, President Elect Dr. Carolina, Director Membership Dr Luiz, CEO Ms Kristine, and Governance Manager Ms Elizabeth, who physically attended the board meeting. Also, they addressed the Joint Board meeting of ISA and WFSA. ISA represented WFSA in the World Health Summit, regional meet held at New Delhi. Myself, Dr. J.V. Divatia, Dr. Rakesh Garg, and Dr. Namita Sharma participated and delivered lectures in this global summit. ISA partnered with the Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations of India (CAHO) and released the Consensus Document titled “The imperative of Point of Care Ultrasound in modern medicine”. The document was released by Dr Abhijat Seth, Chairman, National Medical Commission. For this document, inputs were received from anaesthesiologists and critical care and emergency care physicians. The malignant hyperthermia challenge was overcome by ISA partnering with Perin Healthcare in making Injection Dantrolene available across India. But before this could be accomplished, I wanted to compliment the anaesthesiologists of Pune, Vadodara, Nashik, Sambaji Nagar, Jaipur, and Rajkot for spearheading a moment wherein they all gave personal contributions and made Injection Dantrolene available in their cities by importing the drug. The college of ISA (CISA), the academic wing of ISA, is established with six deaneries, six deans, and six associate deans. Several educational activities were initiated and executed by the deaneries, including webinars, Faculty Development Program, handbooks, a repository of “How I Do?” videos, and plans, which are in place to start fellowship programs. I thank all the deaneries for their phenomenal contributions. ISA signed an MOU with Pallium India to promote the importance of palliative care across India, and ISA signed an MOU with the Indian Association of Skill and Simulation in Health Care for enhancing simulation-based learning in India. It was considered prudent to unite all the speciality societies under one roof. ISA signed an MOU with AOA, IACTA, AORA, AIDAA, RSACP, ISCCM, IAPA, ISNAAC, ISSP, STAAC, and SOAPC for collaboration in education. The first step was that all these societies had their sessions in the ISA Annual National Conference at Raipur, a big step to amalgamate all the societies and do joint activities in education, research, and advocacy. ISACON Raipur was a huge success in terms of academics, silent halls with immaculate audiovisual, comfortable halls, great environ, good social networking sessions, a record 17 workshops, 16 Masterclasses, leadership summit, faculty development programs, and an exhilarating session from the founder of Infinitheism Mahatria Ra. I thank the Chairman, Dr. Sudhir Tichkule, Secretary, Dr. Pradeep Sharma, Scientific Chairs, Dr. Prathibha Jain Shah and Dr Subrat Singh, Workshop lead, Dr. Jaya Lalwani, the Chief Advisor, Dr. Mahesh Sinha, and the entire ISA Chhattisgarh state and ISA Raipur city branch members for their immense contributions. I profoundly thank the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of IJA, Prof Rakesh Garg, for spearheading several new initiatives, adopting the digital media as a tool to propagate learning and for rolling more than 15 different tools to learn. I also thank the editorial board and the reviewers and contributors for raising the standard of our Journal. My sincere thanks to the ISA National Headquarters situated at Patiala and the Honorary Secretary Dr. Sukhminder Jit Singh Bajwa for their hard work and dedication. I fully credit the ISANHQ for being so proactive and committed, which enabled several initiatives. My heartfelt thanks to the entire ISA national governing council for their phenomenal contributions and for being a part of six physical meetings and all the State and City branch Presidents and Secretaries for spearheading the ISA activities in their respective regions. My thanks to all the Past Presidents, Past Governing Council members, and all the ISA members for all their support and encouragement. We all have the power to prevent death, and we have the power to prevent pain. Let us all do this with conviction and offer our best to every single surgical patient. With immense gratitude Dr J Balavenkatasubramanian