The CAS Residents' Competition: a 25 year review.

The popularity of the Residents' Competition at the annual meeting of the Canadian Anaesthetists' Society inspired this 25 yr review of the competitors and their presentations. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey of all participants and all current Anaesthesia programme directors, review of the Canadian Anaesthetists' Society records, and a Medline data-base search. Over the 25 yr review period, 226 presentations have been given by 211 different participants, with the annual number of participants ranging from 6 to 13. The majority of participants have been male (85.3% vs 14.2% female, P < 0.001), and the majority of presentations have been clinical in nature (74% vs 26% laboratory, P < 0.01). Over half of all the presentations (53.1%) subsequently were published as scientific papers, and 71.7% of all participants practised anaesthesia in an academic environment at some point in their career. The Residents' Competition appears to have been successful in encouraging scientific excellence in physician's training in anaesthesia in Canada.