SAMBA Distinguished Service Award Presentation for Rebecca S. Twersky, MD
May 13, 2005 Beverly K. Philip, MD

I have the distinct and personal honor to present the 2005 SAMBA Distinguished Service Award recipient, my colleague and friend, Dr Rebecca S. Twersky.

Dr. Twersky received the MD degree at S.U.N.Y Downstate Medical Center Brooklyn, in 1983 and completed her residency in anesthesiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY in 1986. She is in active clinical practice at Long Island College Hospital - Brooklyn, NY, where she has been Medical Director, Ambulatory Surgery Unit since 1988. Her academic appointment is at S.U.N.Y. Health Science Center at Brooklyn - Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Twersky is Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and has been Vice Chair for Research in that department since 1996. She has to her credit over 200 lectures, 60 visiting professorships and 53 publications, on a variety of ambulatory surgery topics in her areas of interest- preoperative evaluation and testing, patient selection, quality assurance in Ambulatory Surgery, and safety in office based anesthesia.

Dr. Twersky has been active in SAMBA since 1988. In 19991-92, Dr. Twersky took her first leadership role in our organization. She was appointed chair of SAMBA’s education committee, with charge to develop the first “SAMBA Educational Guidelines for Subspecialty Anesthesia Residency Training in Ambulatory Anesthesia”. Dr. Twersky was elected to be Samba’s President in 1998-1999. During her term, SAMBA was active in International Relations, including participation in the 2nd World Congress in Ambulatory Anesthesia, held in Majorca, Spain, (Chair, Raafat Hannallah, MD). During her presidency, SAMBA organized the first Outcomes Research Award “to solicit exceptional outcome-oriented research for the purpose of the elevating quality of patient care in ambulatory anesthesia” (Chair, Patricia Kapur, MD). SAMBA also developed its website (Webmaster, Lance Lichtor, MD), and held a midyear meeting on “Practice Management”. (Chair, Barbara Gold, MD). SAMBA membership grew, and especially its international membership. Throughout this year, and afterward, Dr. Twersky promoted SAMBA personally as leader, and also through encouragement of all these committee chairs and committee members

After her presidency, Dr. Twersky served as the SAMBA Chair: of the Joint IAAS-SAMBA-FASA meeting, the 2003 5th? International Congress on Ambulatory Surgery held in Boston. Our own Burton Epstein, MD was the Nicoll Memorial Lecturer at that Congress.

Dr. Twersky completed an academic sabbatical (January-June 2002) when she was the
recipient of a Fellowship with the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society, a division of the Rockefeller College of Public Policy, SUNY Albany, NY. Dr. Twersky continues to work with the NY Dept of Health in multiple capacities. She is now completing her MPH focusing on Women and Cardiovascular Disease.

Dr. Twersky has also served Ambulatory Anesthesia through other organizations. Some of her professional activities include: For ASA, as Chair ASA Task Force on Office Based Anesthesia, who prepared the ASA’s OBA Manual; as Chair, ASA Committee on Ambulatory Surgical Care; and as ASA representative to JCAHO, where she was Chair, JCAHO Professional Technical & Advisory Committee for Ambulatory Health Care. She has also been ASA rep to AAAHC, serving on its Board of Directors, Standards Committee, and Institute for Quality Improvement. Dr. Twersky has been of the Chair, ASA Annual Meeting Scientific Papers Program and will be Chair of the ASA Annual Meeting. She has been Chair, Post Graduate Assembly in Anesthesiology (PGA) Scientific Meeting as well.

Dr Twersky has also served on the New York State Department of Health - Committee on Quality Assurance in Office Based Surgery, as a delegate to the National Patient Safety Foundation, and has been an Associate Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiologists. Her editorial activities include Associate Editor for Journal of Ambulatory Surgery and Editor of The Ambulatory Anesthesia Handbook (Mosby, Inc.), the only available handbook devoted solely to outpatient anesthesia

What makes “Ricki” complete is her strong dedication to her family life, to her husband David and 3 children. Another dimension of Ricki’s personality is her interest in active sports, which she does together with her family. Anyone who knows Ricki at all knows about her strong religious commitment.

It is with pleasure that SAMBA presents the 2005 Distinguished Service Award to Dr Rebecca S. Twersky. A woman of balance, a woman of action and leadership-
strong family ties and religious commitment- and a passion for our specialty
and for SAMBA. Congratulations, Dr Rebecca Twersky.