Immediate Past President
Carl C. Hug, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
What struck me about this exchange, however, was that the interested questioner was Carl C. Hug, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. I was really intrigued by such a high level of intellectual curiosity in a semi-retired anesthesiologist.
The conversation then wandered to lethal injection, a subject in which I have become somewhat of a reluctant expert. Turns out that Carl has a real interest in medical ethics and continues to teach the subject to medical students, residents and attending physicians.
Carl is a multifaceted and multitalented anesthesiologist, but I think that the hallmarks that make him uniquely deserving of the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) are his intellectual curiosity and his sense of ethics.
His intellectual curiosity was manifest early in his career. He received a Doctorate in Pharmacology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before pursuing a medical degree from the same institution. Medical school was followed by an anesthesiology residency at Emory University in Atlanta, where he continues on the faculty. Carl is not prone to frequent change. His 36-year career at Emory is eclipsed by his 51-year marriage to Marilyn.
His intellectual curiosity has resulted in his being invited as a visiting professor more than 70 times throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has given 14 named lectureships, including the 1999 ASA Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture. He has been enormously productive with numerous original manuscripts and book chapters with important contributions in opioid pharmacology and cardiac anesthesiology. Of particular interest to me was a recent editorial in the February 2006 issue of Anesthesiology on the substantial risk of sedation, which is titled “MAC Should Stand for Maximum Anesthesia Caution, Not Minimal Anesthesiology Care.”
2006 Distinguished Service Award
Monday, October 15
11:15 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Moscone Center North, Room 134
{mosimage}He has made substantial contributions to our appreciation of the ethical challenges of medicine. He is a faculty associate in the Center for Ethics of Emory University. In 1999 he was invited to deliver the Rovenstine Memorial Lecture. His theme was ethics. He discussed with great wisdom such thorny subjects as end-of-life, informed consent, conflict resolution and death in the operating room. The lecture appears in the August 2000 issue of Anesthesiology, and I recommend it highly to anyone who wants to do some thoughtful reading on the ethical conflicts we face.
His contribution to the specialty includes service as a director and president of both the American Board of Anesthesiology and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research.
The above characteristics make Dr. Hug thoroughly deserving of the Distinguished Service Award, ASA’s highest honor to a physician However, Carl’s most endearing quality is that he is a thoroughly genuine, humble and nice person. It was not by chance that I started this article by describing a social encounter with Carl because I avail myself of every opportunity to be with Marilyn and Carl. I encourage any of you who will be attending the 2007 Annual Meeting to attend the Rovenstine Memorial Lecture and be present when this most deserving anesthesiologist becomes the DSA recipient.
Orin F. Guidry, M.D., is Professor and Vice-Chair for Professional Development, Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina.
