Editors letter

Seeing how sedation is flourishing worldwide and in South Africa, and growing as a modality of patient care, is as exciting as watching a child prodigy playing brilliant music at a young age and continuously improving.

More than 20 years ago, Prof James Roelofse started the formal sedation movement in South Africa. We saw the first sedation get-togethers, then the first conferences. The special interest group called SOSPOSA formed and now has 200 active members. Training started at universities in South Africa and in Kenia. We currently boast twice-a-year conferences, social functions, active discussion groups, and probably one of the best websites of any medical interest group in South Africa.

At first, a few students went to Stellenbosch for training, then gradually it became more and more. Currently, more than 700 medical doctors, from general practitioners to a wide range of specialists, have completed their sedation training. Training is ongoing at the University of Bloemfontein.

Medical Lifestyle Magazine, the monthly journal for this fast-growing modality, will follow the same path: small beginnings, with its circulation primarily within the sedation community. But because our focus will be less on esoteric research articles and more on the practical issues we all face daily, we hope to bring something special, which is greatly missed in formal medical journals.

It is now a fact that more procedures are done under sedation than under general anaesthesia. Medical Lifestyle Magazine will bring vital information to the vast audience we hope to reach.

We kick off this issue with an article by the venerable Prof James Roelofse on Friends and Foes and Dr Marí Jansen van Rensburg walking us through airways. Then, on to a focus on the hotly debated NHI bill. This is followed by a lifestyle section, and finally, we have a commentary by our famous “Gas Monkey” himself, D5r Andy Burford.

Thanks to the generous support from individuals and industry, we can distribute this issue free to paid-up SOSPOSA members the Medical Lifestyle Magazine will also be circulated in the greater anaesthetic community and among decision makers in the private hospital and medical aid industry.