Stephen Freiberg is an anesthesiologist who blogs at The DADesthesiologist.

The time when our health care dollars are worth every penny

Physician
February 21, 2021

I complain about the state of U.S. health care a lot. It’s not driven by quality. It’s expensive. It’s corporatized. It undervalues and commoditizes clinical workers. It’s too controlled by insurance companies. It’s riddled with racial, educational, and socio-economic disparities.

I could, and often do, go on and on.

But the other night, I was called in to do a bilateral lung transplant for an exquisitely ill, but rather young woman.

Her OR …

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The time when our health care dollars are worth every penny

Why this anesthesiologist rarely cancels surgeries

Physician
February 18, 2021

Medical specialties, especially within the medical community, are known to be identified as comedic stereotypes of themselves.

In addition to (or in conjunction with) being viewed as lazy, anesthesiologists are often stereotyped as being obstructionists to the operating room.  A spot-on joke generated during the “first” COVID-19 surge in March of 2020 was in reference to Jerome Adams: “First Anesthesiologist Surgeon General, recommends canceling all elective cases.”

For better or worse, the …

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Why this anesthesiologist rarely cancels surgeries

I’m the best anesthesiologist there is

Physician
February 14, 2021

A moment in medical school that left a huge impression on me was when we had chairman’s rounds with the department of medicine’s chair.  He was a renowned breast oncologist and researcher and described a bit of his process when interacting with a patient. The process he had developed over his years of experience was so fine-tuned that there was not a single movement, action, word, or breath that was …

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I’m the best anesthesiologist there is

I don’t care what your cardiologist says

Physician
July 5, 2020

Yeah.

I said it.

As an anesthesiologist, especially as a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, there are few things I am more interested in than how well or how poorly your heart functions and why.  And a cardiologist can help me obtain a lot of vital information in that regard.  But there several things a cardiologist cannot, and I argue, should not do, when it comes to the perioperative care of patients.

First, a cardiologist’s assessment …

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I don’t care what your cardiologist says

Why this anesthesiologist has a problem with monitored anesthesia care (MAC)

Conditions
June 11, 2020

I have a major issue with MAC.

To be more specific, I have a major issue with how we communicate the concept of MAC to our patients, anesthesia care team members, and proceduralist colleagues.

MAC stands for “monitored anesthesia care,” and we tend to throw it around and use it interchangeably with a lot of other terms:

  • Sedation
  • Procedural sedation
  • Conscious sedation
  • Twilight anesthesia
  • Light anesthesia

The fact is, these entities are not …

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Why this anesthesiologist has a problem with monitored anesthesia care (MAC)

5 reasons why your anesthesiologist is a medical ninja

Physician
May 27, 2020

1. Anesthesiologists are your protector

Think about this: An anesthesiologist’s job is to protect you from the harm your surgeon is causing.  Seriously. A surgeon’s job, at its very essence, is to damage your body. Now undeniably, it is with the intention of causing greater good and/or fixing something that is already broken.  But in order for a surgeon to help a patient, they take a knife, saw, drill, or hammer, …

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5 reasons why your anesthesiologist is a medical ninja