Multiple forces are affecting the role of the anesthesiologist in the United States and globally. The population of industrialized nations living longer and many more operations are performed on elderly individuals. This population is at risk from the low therapeutic ratios of the general anesthetics in current use and hence will dictate what operations will be performed using which anesthetic agents. The cost of medical care is increasing globally, but perhaps most rapidly in the United States. The increased cost will lead to more scrutiny regarding the need for operations, the quality, utilization and efficacy of care, changes in Medicare reimbursement, the ability of patients to pay and a demand for the use of less costly health care providers when possible. Technological advances are leading to less invasive procedures that can be done on patients who formerly would be ineligible for these surgical procedures. The presenters and panelists will speculate as to what the practice of anesthesia will be like in the next ten years.

Start or edit a Future of Anesthesia encyclopedia article on Wikipedia.

You can link to this page from the article using the following URL:

http://www.cimit.org/forum/forum-csi-06.24.08.html

Learn more about Wikipedia.

Post a comment / start a discussion on the Forum Blog regarding this Forum.