Longnecker's Anesthesiology > Part 1. The Specialty of Anesthesiology > Chapter 2. The Scope and Future of Anesthesia Practice Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh, DA, FCA, and Alex S. Evers, MD

Key Points

"1. The operating room remains the primary focus for the vast majority of anesthesiologists.

2. The anesthesiologist's primary responsibility is to ensure patients' comfort and safety when they are exposed to the trespass of surgery.

3. The intraoperative conduct of anesthesia has effects on patient safety and comfort in the postoperative period.

4. The provision of safe anesthetic care across geographically dispersed sites and encompassing wide ranges of patient health, in an economically responsible manner, is a challenge that anesthesiologists need to address proactively.

5. It is arithmetically impossible to provide a fully trained anesthesiologist for every anesthetic procedure.

6. Meeting the manpower, safety, and cost demands of the future requires overcoming the political infighting between organized anesthesiology and nurse anesthesia.

7. It is important for the future of the specialty that anesthesiologists increase their commitment to critical care medicine.

8. Recent advances in knowledge and technology create an enormous opportunity for anesthesiologists to address the scientific questions at the core of the specialty as well as a variety of important clinical problems.