Shaping The Future of Anesthesia Through Leadership Development
/Ontario’s Anesthesiologists aspires for anesthesiologists to have visible and inspiring leadership within the health system and to be an influential voice in all aspects of care provided by anesthesiologists. One of our key goals is to solidify our place as valued and important contributors of the health system and ensure our voice reaches key decision-making tables to benefit both patients and providers.
Throughout the pandemic, anesthesiologists have demonstrated their abilities as perioperative leaders and system influencers. The stellar response by members in delivery of frontline services during COVID-19 has shown our specialty’s capacity to pivot, do what is necessary in difficult environments and perform exceptionally well under pressure. The pandemic highlighted the value and versatility of anesthesiologists in the delivery of patient care, as well as areas to focus on to ensure stakeholders understand the critical role we play in patient care.
Collaborating to provide the best patient care with the resources available is a valuable leadership skill. “By design, our specialty requires us to collaborate with our colleagues to ensure that the patient has the greatest likelihood for a positive outcome.”1 Anesthesiologists provide care for patients of all ages and across all specialties and “often play a central role in multidisciplinary efforts to manage complex patients.”2 Ontario’s Anesthesiologists believes developing leadership skills will help shape the future of anesthesia to deliver the best possible patient care in a rapidly changing health-care environment.
One example of Ontario’s Anesthesiologists’ commitment to leadership in patient care is the work we have done, and continue to do, to fight the opioid crisis. By developing SolvingPain.ca and the Perioperative Pain Management Pathway, our goal is to empower physicians to optimize pain management while reducing the number of unnecessary opioid pills in the community.
Anesthesiologists play a vital role in perioperative, obstetrical, and critical care as well as both acute and chronic pain management. “Operating at the intersection of many different medical specialties, anesthesiologists typically have less at stake in the current silos of medical practice and are therefore uniquely positioned to help redesign quality-focused and patient-centered care processes.”3
Along with being knowledgeable clinicians, anesthesiologists are educators, researchers, and innovators. “Our training—including being highly observant to changing circumstances, data-analytical from multiple sources, and precise in decision-making—is not only unique to the role of anesthesiologists in patient care but also the best foundation for a system CEO.”1
The pandemic has amplified some of the challenges in our health system. We need innovative ideas for care delivery in a setting of a growing surgical backlog and a foreseeable increased need for health human resources to ensure patients receive the care they need.
We believe anesthesiologists are well-positioned to occupy a diversity of local, regional and national leadership roles. This leadership has been exemplified throughout the pandemic by collaborating to deliver quality patient care, working across medical specialties, and by providing our unique perspective of the greater health system.
If you are an anesthesiologist, you are encouraged to join us on our leadership journey to increase the number of anesthesiologists in leadership positions, raise awareness of your value in the health system and expand your capability to influence decisions to optimize patient care. You are invited to participate in our annual Ontario Anesthesia Meeting & Conference Weekend, existing leadership initiatives and future leadership course offerings. Together, we will elevate today’s anesthesiologists to become tomorrow’s health system leaders.
Respectfully,
Ontario’s Anesthesiologists Executive
1Conroy, Joanne M. MD*,†; Lubarsky, David MD, MBA‡,§; Newman, Mark F. MD∥,¶,# Anesthesiologists as Health System Leaders: Why It Works, Anesthesia & Analgesia: February 2022 - Volume 134 - Issue 2 - p 235-240 doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000005845
2Nathan, Naveen MD The Path to Leadership in Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia: February 2022 - Volume 134 - Issue 2 - p 241 doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000005863
3Pascal H. Scemama, Jeffrey W. Hull, Bruno Riou; Developing Leaders in Anesthesiology: A Practical Framework. Anesthesiology 2012; 117:651–656 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0b013e3182632358