Specialty Description
Anesthesiology is the practice of medicine dealing with the peri-operative management of patients. This includes the peri-operative/peri-procedural management of patients during surgical and other therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. This management encompasses the pre-operative preparation of the patient and their peri-operative maintenance of normal physiology, as well as the post-operative relief and prevention of pain (1).
What is an anesthesiologist?
An anesthesiologist is skilled in the management and diagnosis of critically-ill patients, including those experiencing cardiac arrest, and in the diagnosis and management of acute, chronic, and cancer-related pain. These goals are achieved through a thorough understanding of physiology and pharmacology, and the ability to conduct, interpret, and apply the results of medical research.
Finally, the anesthesiologist is skilled in the leadership of health services delivery, prudent fiscal resource stewardship, and quality improvement, as well as the supervision, education, and evaluation of the performance of personnel, both medical and paramedical, involved in perioperative and peri-procedural care (1).
What does an anesthesiologist do?
It is, quite literally, the physician anesthesiologist’s job to keep patients alive during invasive procedures. By controlling a patient’s level of awareness (hypnosis), response to pain (analgesia), memory (amnesia) and muscle tone (relaxation), the physician anesthesiologist makes a surgical event a “non-event” for the patient while providing an optimal surgical environment for the team (2).
The role of the physician anesthesiologist has expanded greatly, and now includes caring for patients during recovery, postoperative pain management, providing anesthesia for nonsurgical procedures, providing pain relief during childbirth, critical care medicine, chronic pain management, consulting with other practitioners on managing pain, and much more.
Physician anesthesiologists have also taken leading roles in hospital management as safe, effective and efficient care for surgical patients becomes an important focus at the national level. Physician anesthesiologists developed the perioperative surgical home to improve the delivery of health care during the entire patient surgical/ procedural experience.
Anesthesiology is a young specialty, with its roots in the mid-19th century. Very quickly, however, physician anesthesiologists became recognized as leaders in patient safety. That focus remains the bedrock of the specialty and can be seen in the day-to-day activities of every physician anesthesiologist today.
Anesthesia for surgery is administered primarily in hospitals or medical centers, ambulatory surgical centers or a doctor’s office. Depending on their mode of practice and subspecialty, physician anesthesiologists encounter a wide variety of patient types, with numerous career options in both the academic and private practices.
Those who do not fully understand the role of the physician anesthesiologist might say that there is little, if any, meaningful patient contact, but nothing could be further from the truth. The role of the physician anesthesiologist is perhaps one of the most intense physician–patient relationships in medicine. Many successful physician anesthesiologists mention the often exhilarating and intense patient interactions encountered in anesthesia as a reason for choosing, and staying in, the field.
Charged with protecting patients at a time when they are unable to care for themselves, a physician anesthesiologist’s work is anything but routine. He or she may encounter an emergency cesarean section, a routine tonsillectomy or a car-accident victim all in the same morning. Exceptional technical skills, problem-solving abilities and a cool head under pressure are musts—as is a caring, empathetic demeanor, as “going under” is often cited as patients’ primary fear during medical procedures.
As the role of physician anesthesiologists continues to expand and the need for their services increases, anesthesiologists are experiencing greater variety in employment options and an increase in the complexity of contractual arrangements, billing regulations and clinical guidelines. It behooves today’s physician anesthesiologist to keep current on practice management and professional liability issues.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists maintains active resident and medical student components.
How much do anesthesiologists make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of a physician anesthesiologist in 2013 was $235,070 annually.
How to become an anesthesiologist?
Specialty training required prior to certification: Four years