Category Archives: Healthcare

Anesthesiology, California Society of Anesthesiologists, Healthcare, Leadership, Pain Medicine, Patient Safety

My Last Update as CSA President

It is hard to believe, but this is my last report as CSA President!

We recently held our CSA annual meeting in San Diego which was organized by annual meeting Chair Dr. Christina Menor. This meeting had a theme of “CSA Connect” and was designed to promote more interactive discussion within committees, opportunities to network and catch up with friends and colleagues, meet new people, and enjoy some time to relax.  I think this meeting achieved all of these objectives!  I have listed a few of my personal highlights and takeaways below.

Annual meeting Vice-Chair Dr. Engy Said put together a fantastic point-of-care ultrasound and regional anesthesia workshop on Thursday.  We held very active committee meetings from noon until almost 10 pm (for those on the GASPAC Board), and it was great to see so many members participating in person and virtually thanks to the two new Owl Labs meeting cameras that we recently purchased for CSA.  We had a number of special guests in attendance at the annual meeting including past CSA Presidents, one of whom is also our current ASA President Dr. Michael Champeau!  We also had the President of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists, Dr. Jason Lok, and Dr. John Fiadjoe, Executive Vice Chair of Anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital and Director of the American Board of Anesthesiology, joining us at the conference. 

On Friday, Dr. Cesar Padilla from Stanford gave a compelling presentation on his project to develop and promote Spanish language patient educational video content through a joint venture between Stanford and YouTube.  He then introduced our keynote speaker, California Surgeon General Dr. Diana Ramos, who discussed the work being done in California to decrease maternal morbidity and mortality and how we as anesthesiologists can be leaders in this domain.  We had so many talented speakers from multiple institutions throughout the state who presented on various topics relevant to anesthesiology, critical care and perioperative medicine, and pain management.  After the end of the day’s programming, we had a fantastic networking reception, which Dr. Ron Pearl kicked off as the first of our 75th Anniversary events. 

I gave out the first annual CSA President’s Impact Awards to recognize CSA members for the amazing work they are doing.  Here are the winners!

  • Educator of the Year: Dr. Sophia Poorsattar, UCLA
  • Physician Advocate of the Year: Dr. Todd Primack, Vituity
  • Clinical Innovator of the Year: Dr. Arash Motamed, USC
  • Rising Star: Dr. John Patton, UCLA
  • In-Training Physician of the Year: Dr. Abbey Smith, UC Davis

CSA President-Elect Dr. Tony Hernandez Conte led off the Saturday session with an overview of advocacy efforts by CSA and current legislative issues affecting anesthesiology and pain medicine.  Then I had the privilege of introducing our honorary CSA Leffingwell Lecturer, Dr. Linda Mason, who has been one of my most influential mentors and sponsors.  She is a true icon in our specialty and a role model.  Her advice about a career not being a straight line, “There are squiggly lines too,” resonated with so many attendees.  She even provided her own assessment of the top 10 challenges facing women in leadership and gave some advice about how to be successful.  For anyone interested in hearing more from Dr. Mason as well as some other inspirational anesthesiologists, see these video interviews posted by Dr. Allison Fernandez for the Women of Impact in Anesthesiology project.

Attendees for the annual meeting even stayed until the end on Sunday!  We had great talks on patient safety and communications, diversity and inclusion, pain management, and regional anesthesia.  Then those of us on the Board of Directors closed out the meeting weekend with a very productive session with a fair amount of debate and discussion that will result in some action items for this June House of Delegates.

What else has CSA been up to in recent months?

The CSA website task force has been working closely with website and brand marketing experts to completely redesign the CSA website to make it faster, reflective of the society, and responsive to member needs. The task force is on track to launch the new website by June.

The CSA Communications Committee, chaired by Dr. Emily Methangkool and in partnership with KP Public Affairs, has increased its production of high quality content in a variety of formats, from social media to print media, to promote the value of anesthesiologists’ work and the profession of anesthesiology. Check out recent CSA Vital Times podcast episodes on perioperative work culture and a special interview with Dr. Sharon Ashley in honor of Black History Month in February. The CSA Online First blog posts new content every week! Recent posts have featured CSA members’ activities in research, clinical informatics and global health and member profiles of CSA’s women leaders during the Women’s History Month Spotlight series in March. The CSA Vital Times magazine under the editorship of Dr. Rita Agarwal has produced another fantastic issue that is full of society updates, highlights from each anesthesiology residency program in California, and special articles by CSA members on artificial intelligence, global engagement, Project Lead the Way and other community outreach programs, and the history of anesthesiology in recognition of the contributions of California’s anesthesiologists during this Diamond Jubilee 75th anniversary year.

The week of January 29 through February 4 was designated Physician Anesthesiologists Week in California by an unanimous vote in the Assembly. Assemblymember Matt Haney presented Assembly Concurrent Resolution 3 from the floor, stating that “Anesthesiologists are guardians of patient safety in the operating room, in the delivery room, in the intensive care unit, in pain management clinics, and on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are an essential profession in the healthcare industry. For their dedication to their patients, it is our honor to recognize them for the work they do to care for us.”

So what’s to come between now and the end of my term as President?  We continue to work our legislative contacts to advance our advocacy efforts.  We are developing more digital image and video content to highlight the importance of anesthesiologists in improving patient experience and outcomes over the course of history and in the present.  We are promoting the next CSA annual meeting to be held at the Disneyland Hotel next April 4-7, 2024.  We are preparing for the end of the academic year and are promoting the early career membership program for CSA and ASA to keep our soon-to-be graduates engaged in organized medicine. 

I cannot be more excited for the upcoming governance year as Dr. Tony Hernandez Conte takes over as President.  He has been a fantastic partner this year, and I have learned so much from him.  As I wrap up, I will conclude by saying again how proud I am of all the work we have accomplished in advancing the mission of the society this past year. We have stayed true to our identity as an organization representing the great specialty of anesthesiology, anesthesiologists in California, and our patients.  I wish to thank to all of our CSA physician volunteers, association management staff members (especially Dave Butler, Megan MacNee, Rachel Hickerson, Dena Silva, Evan Wise, Denise King, Kate Peyser, and Jonathan Flom who got frequent messages from me all year), Alison MacLeod at KP Public Affairs and Bryce Docherty at TDG Strategies on behalf of CSA for the tremendous amount of personal effort and dedication that it takes to keep this organization mission-focused and moving forward.

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Anesthesiology, California Society of Anesthesiologists, Healthcare, Leadership, News

My First Report as CSA President

At the first in-person House of Delegates (HOD) session since 2019, I became President of the California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA), the first Filipino-American to do so.   This could have only happened because of the incredible mentors and sponsors that I have been fortunate enough to have in my life.

Over the course of the HOD weekend in June, we held a fundraising luncheon for the CSA Foundation, listened to project presentations from the first cohort of our CSA-UC Irvine Leadership in Healthcare Management Program launched by Drs. Phillip Richardson and Ron Pearl, were treated to a special guest lecture by Sasha Strauss on how to communicate as leaders and demonstrate value, and I provided an educational session on using social media for advocacy.  We hosted Dr. Robert Wailes, President of the California Medical Association (CMA), for an update on the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) since passage of AB 35 (MICRA Modernization). For more information, see Dr. Wailes’ summary.

During the HOD session, I outlined my leadership priorities for this year: expanding public-facing and internal member communications; continuing leadership development; planning the CSA’s 75th anniversary (diamond jubilee); and promoting wellbeing and professional fulfillment within the CSA membership.  I discussed the challenges facing anesthesiology and the importance of recruiting and retaining members. I summarized the value proposition as “Community, Solidarity, and Advocacy,” which also happen to have the acronym “C-S-A.” 

Receiving the gavel from Dr. Ron Pearl, Immediate Past President of CSA and my biggest mentor and sponsor
Special guest speaker Sasha Strauss

We followed HOD with our first Board of Directors (BOD) meeting of the governance year.  We welcomed new Directors, appointed the CSA delegations to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and CMA, and approved committee appointments for this governance year including an expanded Committee on Professional and Public Communication (CPPC).  This new CPPC chaired by Dr. Emily Methangkool and staffed by Kate Peyser, and in partnership with Alison MacLeod and Lisa Yarbrough at KP Public Affairs, will be interfacing will all major committees, divisions, and task forces as well as the CSA Foundation to actively promote the great work by CSA members and advance the recognition, social standing, and influence of anesthesiologists. 

Over the summer, I was Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, hosted by Dr. Chad Brummett, and then had the privilege of participating in the American Medical Association (AMA) annual meeting as an ASA delegate to the AMA HOD.  In this role, I was able to cast my vote for Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld and witness him become the first anesthesiologist President-Elect of the AMA! 

With Drs. Chad Brummett and Mark Bicket at the University of Michigan stadium
With President-Elect of the AMA, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld

My family and I visited Greece for the first time as I participated as a guest speaker at the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy (ESRA) congress in Thessaloniki, and I also welcomed attendees to my first CSA educational event as President: the 2022 CSA Summer Anesthesia Conference.  This meeting was chaired by Dr. Brendan Carvalho and featured a superstar all-women expert panel of dynamic speakers: Drs. Dalia Banks, Sapna Kudchadkar, Alana Flexman, BobbieJean Sweitzer, Romy Yun, and Elizabeth Ozery.  All week, attendees and speakers engaged in conversations related to the practice of anesthesiology, caught up with old friends, and made new connections within the meeting room and around the resort.  It was an amazing week of learning and family time and reinforced the value of CSA and its educational events in fostering community. 

With friends and fellow ESRA invited speakers (Drs. Amit Pawa, Steve Coppens, Lloyd Turbitt, and Clara Lobo)
CSA Summer Conference invited speakers (Drs. Sapna Kudchadkar, Alana Flexman, BobbieJean Sweitzer, Elizabeth Ozery, and Romy Yun), meeting Chair Dr. Brendan Carvalho, and special guests (Drs. Randy Clark, Joy Hawkins, and Morne Wolmarans)

Before leaving Hawaii, I participated in a face-to-face meeting of the Hawaii Safer Care initiative, part of the Improving Surgical Care and Recovery collaborative supported by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, and led by Dr. Della Lin, Senior Fellow in Patient Safety Leadership with the Estes Park Institute and is an inaugural National Patient Safety Foundation/Health Forums Patient Safety Leadership Fellow.  Dr. Lin invited me to participate as a virtual coach during the pandemic last year and work with improvement teams focused on implementing multimodal pain management for surgical patients, so this was my first time meeting the group in person.  For this meeting, teams from three statewide health systems within Hawaii reported out the results of their projects.  The leadership and collaboration among the multidisciplinary teams to implement change despite the challenges of variable resource availability, staffing, and inter-island coordination could serve as a model to inspire our statewide efforts within CSA.

What do we have on deck for CSA? 

At the time of this report, we are receiving applications for the next CSA-UC Irvine Leadership in Healthcare Management Program cohort. Anyone interested can sign up here.  We have appointed the task forces to work on revamping the CSA website and planning activities for the 75th anniversary, including a family-friendly reception at the Annual Meeting in San Diego (April 27-30, 2023) that will be chaired by Dr. Christina Menor.  Stay up to date with CSA events through our online calendar.  Then in October, our CSA delegation heads to New Orleans for the ASA annual meeting, and CSA members will actively participate in educational programming, committee deliberations, and governance activities.  CSA will host a member reception during the conference, and our delegates will stand proudly when CSA’s very own Dr. Michael Champeau takes over as President of the ASA at the conclusion of the Wednesday ASA HOD session!

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Anesthesiology, California Society of Anesthesiologists, Healthcare, Leadership, Medical Education, News, Patient Safety, Research

You Are Not “Asleep” Under Anesthesia

“You will be asleep for your surgery,” anesthesiologists often reassure their patients. Just before the start of anesthesia, a patient may hear the operating room nurse saying, “Think of a nice dream as you go off to sleep.”

While these statements are intended to soothe patients during a stressful time, they gloss over this critical fact: Anesthesia is not like normal sleep at all. 

That’s why you need medical doctors – anesthesiologists – to take care of you under anesthesia, and why you don’t need us when you’re sleeping comfortably in your own bed.

Differences between natural sleep and general anesthesia

Natural sleep represents an active though resting brain state. Every 90 minutes, the brain cycles between rapid eye movement or “REM” sleep and non-REM sleep. During each of these REM cycles, the brain is active, and dreams can take place. The rest and rejuvenation that result from getting a good night’s sleep are essential for overall health and wellbeing.

On the other hand, general anesthesia produces a brain wave pattern known as “burst-suppression,” where brief clusters of fast waves alternate with periods of minimal activity. In a recent article published in Frontiers in Psychology, Drs. Akshay Shanker and Emery Brown explain brain wave patterns found in patients under general anesthesia. They are similar to those of critically ill patients who fall into a coma, have a dangerously low body temperature, or suffer from other serious diseases. Under general anesthesia, patients do not dream.

Confusing general anesthesia and natural sleep seems innocent but can be dangerous. A person who falls into natural sleep doesn’t require constant monitoring or observation. A patient under anesthesia, like an intensive care unit patient in a coma, may appear peaceful and relaxed, but anesthetic drugs don’t produce natural sleep and may cause breathing to stop or have other serious side effects.  Some may recall that Michael Jackson died at home while receiving the anesthetic drug propofol in his veins without an anesthesiologist nearby to protect him.

For patients with chronic health problems, having surgery and anesthesia can put significant stress on the body. Anesthesia gases and medications can temporarily decrease the heart’s pumping ability and affect blood flow to the liver and kidneys. Patients under general anesthesia often need a breathing tube and a ventilator to breathe for them and support their lungs with oxygen.

Respect anesthesia, but don’t fear it

While having anesthesia and surgery should never be taken lightly, anesthesia care today is very safe as long as it is directed by a physician specializing in anesthesiology: an anesthesiologist. Anesthesiology is a medical specialty just like cardiology, surgery, or pediatrics. Research by anesthesiologists has led to the development of better monitors, better training using simulation methods inspired by the aviation industry, and new medications and techniques to give safer pain relief.

As a medical specialty, anesthesiology focuses on improving patient safety, outcomes and experiences.  Anesthesiologists work with surgeons and other healthcare professionals to get you or your family member ready for surgery, designing an anesthesia care and pain management plan specific to the type of operation you need. The anesthesia plan will guide your care during your procedure and throughout your recovery. While general anesthesia is far different from natural sleep, the job of the anesthesiologist is to make sure that you wake up just the same.

This post has also been featured on KevinMD.com.

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Anesthesiology, Healthcare, Pain Medicine

7 Guiding Principles for Acute Perioperative Pain Management

I had the privilege of co-chairing the 2021 Pain Summit hosted by American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). In the months preceding the summit, ASA physician volunteers and staff as well as representatives from 14 other surgical specialty and healthcare organizations worked towards achieving consensus on a common set of principles to guide physicians and other clinicians who manage acute perioperative pain.

These 7 proposed principles are:

  1. Conduct a preoperative evaluation including assessment of medical and psychological conditions, concomitant medications, history of chronic pain, substance abuse disorder, and previous postoperative treatment regimens and responses, to guide the perioperative pain management plan.
  2. Use a validated pain assessment tool to track responses to postoperative pain treatments and adjust treatment plans accordingly.
  3. Offer multimodal analgesia, or the use of a variety of analgesic medications and techniques combined with nonpharmacological interventions, for the treatment of postoperative pain in adults.
  4. Provide patient and family-centered, individually tailored education to the patient (and/or responsible caregiver), including information on treatment options for managing postoperative pain, and document the plan and goals for postoperative pain management.
  5. Provide education to all patients (adult) and primary caregivers on the pain treatment plan, including proper storage and disposal of opioids and tapering of analgesics after hospital discharge.
  6. Adjust the pain management plan based on adequacy of pain relief and presence of adverse events.
  7. Have access to consultation with a pain specialist for patients who have inadequately controlled postoperative pain or at high risk of inadequately controlled postoperative pain at their facilities (e.g., long-term opioid therapy, history of substance use disorder).

This is the first project from this new collaborative, which focused on the adult surgical patient, and there are already plans for future projects. The participating organizations are:

  • American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
  • American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
  • American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  • American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
  • American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  • American College of Surgeons
  • American Hospital Association
  • American Medical Association
  • American Society of Breast Surgeons
  • American Society of Plastic Surgeons
  • American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
  • American Urological Association
  • Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Healthcare, Leadership

#HerTimeIsNow: Be an Ally!

Today is the last day of #WIMMonth, but supporting #WomenInMedicine doesn’t stop today!

Everyone should sign this petition at Change.org.

Deans, Chairs, and other healthcare leaders can go even further by reading this pledge and signing on.

I have been promoting the #HerTimeIsNow campaign led by the inspirational Dr. Julie Silver throughout the month of September. This campaign represents a collaboration between the American Medical Women’s Association, She Leads Healthcare, and Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM).

There is still so much work to be done to achieve gender equity in academic medicine, especially for underrepresented minorities.

Read the full #HerTimeIsNow report.

Men in medicine, particularly those in leadership positions in academic departments, editorial boards, and professional societies, have a huge role to play as allies. Here is my full quote from the report:

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Anesthesiology, COVID-19, Healthcare, Pain Medicine, Patient Safety, Regional Anesthesiology

We Still Have an Opioid Epidemic

COVID-19 has changed every aspect of our personal and professional lives.

In the midst of this pandemic, we still have an opioid epidemic. It is not one thing unfortunately, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe three distinct waves of opioid-related overdose deaths.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Given the complexity of the opioid epidemic, we have to keep working within our spheres of influence. For those of us in anesthesiology, that means focusing on surgical patients: improving their outcomes and providing effective perioperative pain management along with opioid stewardship.

Dr. Chad Brummett and his colleagues at Michigan OPEN have been leading the way in procedure-specific opioid prescribing recommendations. Their process, which takes into account data from the Collaborative Quality Initiative (CQI), published studies, and expert input, specifically focuses on the perioperative care of patients who are not taking any opioids prior to surgery.

Continue reading We Still Have an Opioid Epidemic →

Through multimodal analgesia, we prevent and treat pain in a variety of ways without depending solely on opioids.

At our institution, we offer patients regional anesthesia and have been able to decrease the amount of opioid pills that patients are given when they leave the hospital by basing the prescription on how much they use the prior day. Patients participate in this process, and we give them clear instructions on how to safety taper their opioids at home.

As a representative of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), I have been able to collaborate with surgical societies such as the American Society of Breast Surgeons and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons to develop pain management recommendations and toolkits that emphasize multimodal analgesia, use of regional anesthesia techniques for targeted non-opioid pain management when it is available, and opioid safety in the hospital and at home.

ASA-AAOS Pain Alleviation Toolkit

I also represent ASA as a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Action Collaborative Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic. The first discussion paper from the NAM pain management workgroup was released on Aug 10: Best Practices, Research Gaps, and Future Priorities to Support Tapering Patients on Long-Term Opioid Therapy for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain in Outpatient Settings. This paper highlights best practices in opioid tapering and identifies evidence gaps to drive future research.

Despite the massive amount of resources, human effort, and time dedicated to the fight against COVID-19, we have still managed to make progress in decreasing opioid-related risk in the perioperative period. However, there is still a lot of work left to do, and our patients are depending on us.

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Anesthesiology, COVID-19, Healthcare, Medical Education, Regional Anesthesiology

A Year Ends and a New One Begins

This academic year was truly like no other.

At the end of July, we graduated three new physician experts in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine (RAAPM), and I could not be more proud of them! From our welcome party in the summer of 2019 to a year’s worth of teaching sessions, socials, and medical missions to the opening of the new Stanford hospital, the #COVID19 pandemic and #BlackLivesMatter movement – what a year for our amazing grads! Check out this fantastic graduation video from Dr. Jody Leng:

Our graduating fellows surprised me with the honor of being their Teacher of the Year along with Dr. Ryan Derby! It is such a privilege to be part of our fellows’ training every year and see them grow into physician consultants with RAAPM expertise.

Our new fellows are off to a strong start and are now officially part of our Stanford RAAPM family! If you are interested in learning more about our fellowship program, please visit our fellowship website and contact me with any questions.

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Anesthesiology, COVID-19, Healthcare, Medical Education

Congratulations to Our Newest Anesthesiologists

2020 is a unique graduation year for all of our anesthesiology residents and fellows due to COVID-19, but never before has the role of anesthesiologists been more relevant. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has prepared this special graduation message so programs can incorporate it into their virtual ceremonies, and it features a very special commencement speaker: Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General of the United States!

Link to graduation video: https://bit.ly/3eMg5ET

Nearly all of these physicians who are just starting their careers specializing in anesthesiology have completed 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years of internship and residency plus 1 or more years of fellowship training for many. Hopefully this message will help our newest graduates, their families and friends, and their teachers and mentors recognize and commemorate this important milestone in their lives.

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Anesthesiology, COVID-19, Healthcare, Leadership, Social Media

Being a Positive and Authentic Voice

“The key is to not reflexively get defensive, but to treat people on social media as you would treat them in real life.”

Season 2 Episode 33: Being a Positive and Authentic Voice with Dr. Ed Mariano 

Drs. Shillcutt and Mariano get real and talk: 

  • Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic information overload  
  • Discussing hard topics on social media 
  • Being a positive voice for marginalized groups 
  • Being a “Chief Cheerleader”  
  • The key to joy at work 

In this episode of The Brave Enough Show, I had a chance to speak with host Dr. Sasha Shillcutt about a variety of topics including #HeforShe, leadership, and maintaining a positive voice on social media. Enjoy!

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Anesthesiology, California Society of Anesthesiologists, COVID-19, Healthcare, News, Patient Safety

Beyond COVID-19: Stand Up for Veterans Having Surgery

Our Veterans have made tremendous sacrifices to defend our freedoms. Now it is our time to defend them.

Many people, even those who work in the operating room every day, take safe anesthesia care for granted. There has been growing pressure during this pandemic to remove physician supervision of nurse anesthetists with the latest threat coming from within Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare. For our Veterans, our heroes and arguably some of the most medically complex patients, having a physician in charge of anesthesia care at hospitals where anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists work together as a team makes the most sense.

Having a team with members who train differently and have different perspectives can only benefit the patient; anesthesiologists are physicians who draw on their medical training while nurse anesthetists bring valuable nursing experience. If you were a patient having surgery, wouldn’t you want an anesthesiologist directly involved in your care and leading the anesthesia team? If the answer is yes, please send your comments to Safe VA Care and let your elected officials know by contacting them.

Continue reading Beyond COVID-19: Stand Up for Veterans Having Surgery →

Providing anesthesia is often compared to flying a passenger airplane, and the anesthesia care team model is like having both a pilot and a co-pilot. 

Who thinks flying has become so safe that we no longer need the pilot? Seconds count in flight, and they count just as much in the operating room when a patient’s life is on the line. 

In 2016, the VA rejected independent practice for nurse anesthetists after careful consideration, but this decision was recently overturned by a memo citing the COVID-19 pandemic. This memo abolishes the anesthesia care team model without giving Veterans a choice. Veterans having surgery may only get a nurse anesthetist without the option of having an anesthesiologist involved. If they were given the choice, however, I think our Veterans would choose an anesthesiologist or an anesthesia care team led by an anesthesiologist instead of a nurse anesthetist alone. We all should. In areas affected by surges of COVID-19, elective surgeries at the VA are stopped so there is no shortage of anesthesiologists.

Anesthesiologists all over the world have been fighting COVID-19 and have shown what they can do with their specialized medical training in a crisis. Although commonly referred to as “going to sleep,” general anesthesia is more like a complex drug-induced coma that can carry serious risk. If or when a crisis happens during surgery, every patient should have access to an anesthesiologist.

Modern anesthesiologists are physicians first but also scientists, educators, and patient safety advocates. Anesthesiologists specialize in relieving anxiety, preventing and treating pain, preventing and managing complications related to surgery, critical care, and improving patient outcomes. The average anesthesiologist spends nearly a decade in postgraduate education after college including medical school and logs 16,000 hours of clinical training to learn to apply the best available evidence in clinical practice. Academic physicians and scientists focused on anesthesiology are responsible for the discovery of newer and safer anesthetics, pain therapies, and technologies that are advancing healthcare throughout the world.

Anesthesia administration by non-physicians such as nurse anesthetists and certified anesthesiologist assistants is supported by the American Society of Anesthesiologists within the physician-led anesthesia care team model. To uphold the highest quality physician-led anesthesia care for our nation’s Veterans, please speak up by supporting Safe VA Care and reaching out to legislators. 

It only takes a minute to stand up for safety, but the consequences of not saying something may be serious and long-lasting.

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