Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists

Letter from the Editor

Results of Members' Needs Survey

You completed a Needs Survey and indicated whether you have Internet access by responding to a mailing last summer. Here are the results.

We had a 26% response rate: of approximately 6200 surveys sent to all of our members, there were approximately 1600 replies. This is considered a high response rate. Only 2% of those replying indicated that they do not have access to electronic communication via email.

You ranked your needs from the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the most important, and 5 the least important. They are ordered from most important to least important.

• Education (1.6)
• Advocacy for our specialty (2.4)
• Political representation (3.3)
• Opportunity to network via meetings (3.5)
• Opportunity to network via mail / phone (4.0)

The numbers given with the needs are the average score of each need.

Thanks to those of you who responded. The Society leadership will be able to use your responses to allocate resources to make our Society satisfy the needs of the members more effectively.

I am somewhat concerned about the lack of electronic communication access reported by 2% of the survey respondents. Assuming that the 26% who responded are a representative sample, approximately 124 of our 6200 members are not able to receive the electronic version of the Newsletter, as well as other information posted on the Website. If this is a problem for you, please contact me.

Rose Christopherson, MD, PhD
Associate Professor

Oregon Health Sciences University
Anesthesiology Service (P3ANES)
Portland V. A. Medical Center