add a new dimension to the role played by anesthesiologists. "As all
specialties become more production driven, particularly surgery, some-
one has to do the perioperative management," says Dr. Viscusi. "And
that's likely to be anesthesiologists. Who better? We have the best
understanding of the perioperative process and outcome drivers.
Furthermore, surgeons are less trained and less interested in managing
these aspects."
Hospitalists, he says, are likely to take on some added responsibility,
"but they have less surgical understanding." Instead, anesthesiologists
will likely emerge as the leaders as the perioperative surgical home
model advances. "The PACU is no longer the finish line," says Dr.
Viscusi. Outcomes will be judged on numerous additional criteria,
including chronic pain after surgery, disability-free recovery and inci-
dence of addiction.
Who's to say?
What else can we confidently predict? Only that there's bound to be
unpredictability as well. Consider that it wasn't very long ago that
Sedasys — the computer-assisted personal sedation system — was, at
least many assumed, going to revolutionize anesthesiology. When it
finally arrived, there was barely enough time to say hello before it was
gone. The future, it seems, has a mind of its own.
OSM
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