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Åsmund S. Lærdal

Status after 27 years of operation

The Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine was established in 1980 by Åsmund S. Lærdal, in collaboration with the University of Oslo, by an original donation of NOK 10 mill from Laerdal Medical. As a result of continuous donation from Laerdal Medical and the Laerdal families, as well as proceeds from fund management, the foundation capital amounts to NOK 370 mill as of January 2008. Annual awards now amount to about NOK 20 mill (USD 3 mill).

Until now the Foundation, together with a sister foundation in the US, has provided financial support to about 1,500 projects totaling in excess of NOK 100 mill (USD 15 mill). This project support has included support for the completion of more than 60 PhD degrees in Scandinavia.

Other activities include:

• Partial financing of chairs in acute medicine at the Universities in Oslo, Stavanger and Cardiff
• The establishment of the Laerdal Honorary Award within Acute Medicine awarded every four years by the University of Oslo
• Support of 10 Utstein meetings
• Support of the Asmund S. Laerdal memorial lecture at the annual meetings of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SSCM) in the USA, and at the biannual meeting of the Scandinavian Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (SSAI)