• DOI:10.1097/ALN.0000000000000680
• Corpus ID: 45472731

Future of anesthesiology is perioperative medicine: a call for action.

@article{Kain2015FutureOA,
  title={Future of anesthesiology is perioperative medicine: a call for action.},
  author={Zeev N. Kain and Jane C. K. Fitch and Jeffrey R. Kirsch and Berend Mets and Ronald Gene Pearl},
  journal={Anesthesiology},
  year={2015},
  volume={122 6},
  pages={
          1192-5
        }
}

• Z. Kain, J. Fitch, +2 authors R. Pearl
• Published 1 June 2015
• Medicine
• Anesthesiology

1192 June 2015 C urrently, the American healthcare system is undergoing significant changes in response to healthcare reform legislation such as the Affordable Care Act of 2010, as well as market forces and the ongoing maturation of the American healthcare industry. This evolution is consistent with the changes that have occurred in other industries such as agriculture, travel, and aviation. Over the past decades, anesthesiologists have continually expanded their focus from the operating rooms to postanesthesia care units, intensive care units, and pain medicine. In parallel to the expansion of the clinical footprint of our discipline, the core training curriculum of anesthesiology residency has changed significantly to now include many nonoperating room anesthesia rotations.1 This development is not unique to the united States, and many other countries such as the united Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia have developed strategies to increase the role of anesthesiologists in perioperative medicine.1 In a recent editorial in the British Journal of Anaesthesia entitled Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine around the World: Different names, Same Goals, some of us argue that “regardless of what the model is called around the globe, we have to embrace our expanded role as perioperative physicians as our main value proposition.”2 A proposal raised at the 2014 annual meeting of the Society of Academic Anesthesiology Associations (SAAA) is the impetus for this editorial, which was written by Chairs of Anesthesiology Departments who also serve as members of the executive committee of SAAA. The SAAA annual meeting was attended by 498 representatives of 124 academic anesthesiology departments (including chairs, program directors, and subspecialty fellowship directors who are the constituent members of this association). During a general session of the SAAA annual meeting, Dr. Kain, the first author of this editorial, proposed the motion to formally change the name of our specialty. There was healthy discussion on both sides of the issues, with active participation by department chairs, residency program directors, and fellowship program directors. After the discussion, an informal show of hands was overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal. After the meeting, a survey was sent to the SAAA general membership (n = 500) asking, “Do you approve or oppose a resolution to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Board of Directors to change the name of our specialty to Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (from Anesthesiology)?” There were a total of 189 responses (38%): 172 (91% of the respondents) were in favor and 17 opposed (9%). Although SAAA does represent the academic leadership of our specialty, any change in the name of our specialty will require consultation and approval by multiple stakeholders such as the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), American Board of Anesthesiology and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical education (ACGMe). The chief aim of this editorial is to present a proposal and rationale for changing the name of our specialty from “Anesthesiology” to “Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine” and to advance the process of discussions among all these stakeholders. Over the past few decades, the specialty of anesthesiology has expanded its practice from being largely confined to the operating room to include perioperative medical practice in acute pain medicine, postoperative and intensive care Future of Anesthesiology Is Perioperative Medicine