Board Stiff Live

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Chris Gallagher, one of the three founders of Board Stiff Live® Anesthesia Oral and Written Board Review Courses, was awarded a 2008 Teaching Recognition Award for Achievement in Education from the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). This award is given to those who have made demonstrated and extraordinary contributions to education.

The award is not given out regularly every year; in fact, it is only awarded when the IARS feels that an educator has truly met the criteria for the award. In 2008, they awarded two of these prestigious honors, one of which went to Dr. Gallagher. The co-winners (which included Dr. Lydia Conley of Baylor University), were presented their awards and participated in a program at the 2009 IARS Annual Meeting, which was held in San Diego in March.

Dr. Gallagher was honored and thrilled to learn he was to receive this award. It became, in fact, even more meaningful to him when he learned what had led the judges to choose him.

“I was curious as to what tipped them toward me,” says Dr. Gallagher. “So I asked one of the judges: ‘Was it the books I wrote?’ and he said, ‘The biggest influence on our decision was the testimonials of the fellows, residents, and medical students you had taught.’

“So it was the one-on-one teaching that did it, and that was really touching for me.”

In addition to his work with Board Stiff Live®, Dr. Gallagher is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology at Stony Brook University Medical Center. Per an announcement about the award issued by the institution:

As Residency Program Director in Anesthesiology at SBUMC, Dr. Gallagher has enhanced education by developing interactive training, built board review courses based on hundreds of questions he devised, and created many clinical simulation training modules from which students gain hands-on knowledge of diseases and conditions in emergency and operating room scenarios.

“I try to make all lessons fun, with humor. I just put myself in the shoes of my residents and fellows…and start teaching,” says Dr. Gallagher.