The academic department is closely associated with the two clinical departments and their respective hospitals. The department is a member of the Association of Canadian University Departments of Anesthesia (ACUDA). This national organization brings together chairs, postgraduate and undergraduate program directors, research directors, and continuing education directors from every university department in Canada. Many projects have been initiated at this level including a national curriculum in anesthesia and manpower studies informing ministries of health at the national and provincial levels.

Our affiliation is with the anesthesiologists in St. Catharines and Cambridge support the regional medical school activities in St. Catharines and Waterloo respectively, and they have entered actively into the business of teaching students and residents. We are very appreciative of their support and involvement.

Members of the Department are involved at several levels (steering committee, data collection, and review) in the interdisciplinary group under the leadership of Dr. P.J. Devereaux to carry out studies in peri-operative medicine (VISION, POISE-II trials). Through interaction with the University Health Network and a community-based software developer, Adjuvant Informatics, Dr. James Paul is part of a group developing an electronic database/pre-operative screening tool that will provide continuously updated risk assessment based upon best current evidence and revised according to actual outcome data. We collaborate with the McMaster Education Research, Innovation and Theory (MERIT) Program, and the School of Nursing, and the School of Rehabilitation Science in the interdisciplinary education and pain-related studies.

A special endowment from benefactor Michael G. DeGroote is in place for a National Centre for Chronic Pain, as a third pillar to the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care at McMaster University. This was developed following a suggestion from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) to provide updating and implementation or “push-out” of pain practice guidelines. Dr. Thabane and Dr. Buckley are working with Lina Santaguida from the Centre for Evidence Based Practice in this pursuit, along with Rhoda Reardon and Dr. Angela Carol from the CPSO.