ASA and the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) are separate organizations with separate missions. Together, their work is important to the practice of anesthesia and the profession of anesthesiology. This edition of Shared Perspectives will look at the origins and early decades of ASA and ABA as they began to develop into the organizations they are today.
October 6, 1905, was a fair day in Brooklyn, New York, with afternoon temperatures in the 60s. A group of eight physicians and one medical student met at the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) at the invitation of Adolph Frederich “Fred” Erdmann, MD. Erdmann was an 1897 medical school graduate and had served as anesthetist of the LICH since 1900. At 37 years of age, Dr. Erdman was the oldest of the nine gathered on that day – all of whom shared a common interest in anesthesia. This gathering became the founding meeting...
