Evolution of the Departmental goals during the past decades has been moving from predominantly training
and retaining generalist anesthesiologists to training and retaining anesthesiologists who will have varying
degrees of subspecialty interest. During the past few years, the increasing sub-specialization of our surgical
colleagues at Strong Memorial and Highland Hospitals has led to the increasing need for sub-specialist
anesthesiology expertise among our faculty. Individuals and groups that focus on pain management,
regional, pediatric, cardiovascular, neurosurgical, transplantation, thoracic, vascular and obstetrical
anesthesia have emerged. More recently, the areas of bariatric, urological and ambulatory anesthesia are emerging.
It is clear that in the near future we need to address issues of subspecialization within orthopedic
and urologic surgery in addition to a more general focus on specific areas of anesthesia practice in which
geriatric age patients predominate. In addition, we are increasingly required to address specialized problems
related to radiological and radiological-surgical interventions and imaging that will ultimately lead to
further expansions as we already have in one of our new ORs constructed and functioning as an integrated
surgery and imaging suite. The role of robotics, which has just begun within this institution will evolve
and require specific anesthesia adaptations. We foresee a future for the Department in which a minority of
individuals will exclusively focus in the general areas while the majority of the faculty will allot varying
degrees of time to subspecialty areas while maintaining skills in general practice.
