I was first introduced to the exciting field of anesthesiology during the summer of my first year of medical school at the University of Maryland. I had signed up for a summer anesthesiology externship and was exposed to various sides of anesthesiology, from general operating room cases, to regional nerve blocks, to obstetric anesthesia.
After completing my medical school rotations, I realized the fulfillment of being both the intensivist and internist in the operating room and applied to residency in anesthesiology. I completed my residency at Northwestern in Chicago and fellowship at Duke in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine.
After fellowship, I joined Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group in Northern Virginia. As a Permanente physician, I exclusively care for patients who purchase insurance through Kaiser Permanente.
As I am originally from Baltimore, being close to home was important to me and the group offered an excellent balance of cases and strong relationships with exceptional surgeons and staff.
Permanente Medicine promotes a truly innovative form of healthcare that is integrated, comprehensive, and places the patient at the center, which I really appreciated. Additionally, the organization offers early leadership opportunities and promotes physician wellness and diversity in a meaningful way.
As a relatively new, young anesthesiologist, I had the opportunity to enhance our use of regional anesthesia at our ambulatory surgery center, contribute to our group’s COVID-19 Task Force, prepare our team at the onset of the pandemic last year, and become involved with our morbidity and mortality conferences.
I was informed of the opening on the Virginia Board of Medicine last year as the representative for my district was completing their term. I applied to the position because I felt the voice of an anesthesiologist, especially during the critical time of a pandemic, was important.
Anesthesiologists have a unique viewpoint of the difficulties a hospital or health system might face, as we work with many types of specialties and often coordinate preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care.
The Board of Medicine has many responsibilities, most importantly to protect the public. This aligns well with the role of anesthesiologist – perioperative physicians and leaders at the forefront of patient safety practice and guidelines; many specialties look to us to uphold the standard of safety and vigilance, especially in times of medical emergencies.
In my application, I noted that even if I wasn’t personally selected, I encouraged the committee to consider an anesthesiologist for the opening because of our unique position. Nearly one half the states include a physician anesthesiologist as a member of their medical or osteopathic boards.
Through the American Society of Anesthesiologists, we are able to connect with each other to learn about contemporary advocacy issues that have already or are coming to our state’s board. As an Anesthesiologist and Permanente physician, I hope to contribute meaningfully to the work performed by our Board of Medicine to promote patient safety, evidence-based medicine, and safe scope of practice principles in our state.
I encourage all Virginia anesthesiologists to use their expertise and unique training to pursue leadership positions at local, regional, state, or national levels, as it is our voices that genuinely can improve our society’s healthcare.