Anesthesiologists

In the United States of America, anesthesiologists are physicians (MD or DO) whom have chosen to specialize in anesthesiology. The majority of anesthesiologists in the United States have completed a four-year undergraduate college degree, including pre-medical requirements. Like other physicians, anesthesiologists complete four years of medical school. However, several medical schools offer a six year program following high school. The first two years fulfill the pre-medical requirements, and the following four years are the traditional medical education. After medical school, a physician choosing anesthesiology as his or her specialty has historically completed a year of internship and then three years of residency. Anesthesiology residency training encompasses a full scope of perioperative medicine, including pre-operative medical evaluation, management of pre-existing disease in the surgical patient, intraoperative life support, intraoperative pain control, post-operative recovery, intensive care medicine, and chronic and acute pain management. After residency, many anesthesiologists complete an additional fellowship year of subspecialty training in areas such as pain management, cardiac anesthesiology, pediatric anesthesiology, neuro anesthesiology, obstetric anesthesiology or critical care medicine. The majority of anesthesiologists in the United States are board-certified by a specialty medical board; either the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) or the American Osteopathic Board of Anesthesiology (AOBA). According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, anesthesiologists provide or participate in more than 90 percent of the 40 million anesthetics delivered in the USA annually. Anesthesiologists are highly specialized physicians certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology or by the American Osteopathic Board of Anesthesiology only after completion of many years of extensive and specialized training. The goal of this training is to provide every patient with a physician capable of managing the most complicated and difficult of medical and surgical situations with life saving skills and decision-making