The Continuing Influence of Ralph M. Waters on Education in Anesthesiology

Abstract

Recently qualified anesthetists have insufficient knowledge of history to recognize either the extent of remarkable change which has occurred over the past several decades or the magnitude of indebtedness owed to those through whose efforts our present professional position has been secured. The current generation is able to practice modern anesthesiology in all its aspects in relative comfort because of the background of effort, the scientific advances, struggles, and successes of prior years. Every decade has had its special problems, triumphs, and frustrations; its leaders who rose to the occasion of new challenges; its builders who laid the foundation for development in succeeding generations. Of all the notables and luminaries associated with the rapid development of modern anesthesiology in the first half of the 20th century the most outstanding was Ralph M. Waters, who joined the medical faculty at the University of Wisconsin in 1927. In less than a decade his ideas and the contributions from his department made Madison, Wisconsin the focal point of interest in the world of anesthesia.