SC Talk: “What happens to your brain after anesthesia and surgery?” 

Speaker: Beverley Orser, MD, PhD, FRSC. FRCPC, FCAHS

Introducer: Milton Charlton

BIO: Dr. Orser is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto and a practicing anesthesiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. Her preclinical research has provided fundamental insights about how general anesthetic drugs depress brain function, how these drug cause adverse side effects, and how to mitigate the side effects. Her laboratory first demonstrated the unique pharmacological properties of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors then identified a role for these receptors in health and disease. Her discoveries have led to patented new treatments. Her clinical studies have focused on patient safety and workforce planning in Canada. She founded or co-founded organizations to improve patient care including ISMP-Canada (www.ismp-canada.org), the Quality and Patient Safety Committee of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society and the Perioperative Brain Health Centre (www.perioperativebrainhealth.com). Her contributions have been recognized by the Gold Medal from the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society (2017), the Peter Dresel Award in Pharmacology from Dalhousie University (2017), the first Canada Research Chair awarded to an anesthesiologist (2003), the first Frontiers in Anesthesia Research Award from the International Anesthesia Research Society (1995), Award for Excellence in Research from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (2018) and recognition awards from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. She is an elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2013), a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada (2018), a Senior Fellow of Massy College (2020), and an International Member of the US National Academy of Medicine (2018).

Dr. Orser received a Medical Doctorate from Queen’s University (1981), a Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (1987), and a PhD in medical science from the University of Toronto (1995). She completed postgraduate clinical training at the Royal Columbian Hospital in British Columbia, McMaster University in Hamilton, Oxford University, and the University of Toronto.

The link to register is https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JsKqeAMvTUuQN7RtVsVSEKo-DHaj3xRAluk2q6EEM7NUMEE3TjcwTDc2QklRQjlJR1U2UUkxNUhVOC4u

The deadline to register is the Wednesday of the talk at 8:00am. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only on the morning of the event.