UK Anesthesiologist Visits 'the Other UK' on Prestigious Endowed-Lectureship Tour

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2015) – In May, Dr. John H. Eichhorn, professor of Anesthesiology and Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, a widely recognized patient safety activist, visited “the other UK,” the United Kingdom, to deliver a 10-day series of presentations as part of an invited endowed lectureship conferred by the British Royal College of Anaesthetists.

Eichhorn was the J. Arthur Rank Lecturer, the Royal College’s highest honor for a visiting dignitary, which is awarded only rarely, and is named after its original sponsor, a late English industrialist and media mogul.  He delivered presentations to the entire staff at various university hospitals in Manchester and London, England, on “The Origin and Evolution of Patient Safety.”  Further, the main event of the lectureship was the Royal College’s annual meeting, this year held in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Eichhorn, as that assembly’s keynote speaker, addressed an enthusiastic overflow crowd of “UK” anesthesiologists on “Intra-Op to Peri-Op: Anesthesia Patient Safety Then and Now.” 

In addition, because the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland conducted its annual meeting the week following Eichhorn’s lectureship in Great Britain, he was invited separately by that group to travel on to Dublin to address their convention regarding anesthesia patient safety – past, present, and future.

Earlier this spring, Eichhorn was recognized as first author of one of the “game changer” or most important published articles ever in the specialty of anesthesiology, in which he described standards for anesthesia professionals’ monitoring of the patient and the conduct of anesthetics for surgical procedures that led to permanent changes worldwide in the practice of anesthesia.  

As a result of career-long efforts to improve patient safety and quality of care in anesthesia, in 2011 Eichhorn received the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Achievement from the National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission, the highest recognition there is in healthcare safety and quality.

“These invitations to the British Isles were a great honor,” Eichhorn reflected, “and I was received with remarkable warmth, appreciation, and respect.  Also, I was able to educate many of my British and Irish colleagues about Kentucky (especially where exactly it is) and about “our” UK.  I believe some of them will visit here as a result.”

Media Contact: Ann Blackford at 859-323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu