Anesthesia Meets Automation

This article appears in the March 2015 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.

The emergence of the SEDASYS system, the McSleepy, and other automated monitoring and drug delivery devices may herald the age of automation in anesthesia.

Increasingly, a colonoscopy team includes not just a gastroenterologist but also an anesthesiologist. Not content with conscious sedation achieved through a combination of intravenous drugs, more patients and gastroenterologists are opting for deep sedation that only an anesthesia professional can deliver.

That scenario is about to change. After years of research, debate, and Food and Drug Administration review, the SEDASYS system is now available. The device, the federal agency states, will allow nonanesthesia professionals to administer propofol during colonoscopy and esophagogastroduodenoscopy procedures, “provided they have training that meets the requirements and in settings having immediate availability of an anesthesia professional as defined in the labeling.”

The emergence of the SEDASYS system and other devices may herald the age of automation in anesthesia. Systems that aid humans in monitoring and responding to vital signs are already routinely used by anesthesiology professionals in Europe. Recent studies suggest there are benefits of automated intubation and IV fluid systems. And researchers at McGill University in Canada are also working on the McSleepy, an automated monitoring and drug delivery device.