As anesthesiologists, we play critical roles throughout the entire health care system. Serving as guardians of patient safety before, during, and after surgery – especially when there’s an emergency – is only the beginning. Unfortunately, policymakers, health care executives, and the public often don’t understand or recognize our value, even though we are there for the moments that matter most. This lack of awareness of our vital role has led to scope-of-practice battles and threats to our specialty.

ASA communications activities guided by the Committee on Communications (COC) are focused on changing that perception by increasing awareness of anesthesiologists’ value, innovation, expertise, and impact in and beyond the OR. We are making a difference through various efforts to: protect Safe VA Care, ensure patient safety, and share thought leadership and the latest research. Read on to learn how we are employing the news to showcase our specialty and how you can help.

Our efforts to keep health care for our nation’s Veterans safe were successful in 2017, when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reaffirmed the standard of anesthesia care that requires physician oversight after an exhaustive, multiyear review. But since 2020, we have been battling a similar proposal to the one we defeated in 2017, which would replace anesthesiologists with nurse anesthetists in surgery. For the past four years, the ASA communications team has strategically advocated for Veterans through the media by alerting the public to this issue and urging them to protect Veterans’ access to high-quality, physician-led anesthesia care.

Anesthesiology Editor-in-Chief James P. Rathmell, MD, MBA (left), Crystal Wright, MD, FASA, ASA Assistant Treasurer (right), and Ronald Harter, MD, FASA, ASA President (not pictured), were filmed for a public television documentary segment titled “Commitment to Care.”

We launched a nationwide satellite media tour in April – a series of interviews conducted with multiple television and radio outlets in a single day – to reach millions of viewers and listeners in regions with high Veteran populations and encourage them to contact their legislators, asking them to tell VA to stop this risky initiative.

ASA President Ronald L. Harter, MD, FASA, and anesthesiologist and combat Veteran Bridget Bush, MD, FASA, were interviewed during the satellite media tour, which resulted in 39 television, radio, and online news segments across the country. These stories were aired by major news outlets in important markets, including: KCPQ-TV (FOX, Seattle), WHSV-TV (ABC, Harrisburg, Virginia), KXAN-TV (NBC, Austin, Texas), and WMT-AM (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), reaching an audience of more than 864 million people.

During the satellite media tour, Dr. Harter said that, compared to nurse anesthetists, “anesthesiologists are more equipped to manage potential medical complications related to surgery. They have twice as many years of training and education as nurse anesthetists, and they have five times as [many] clinical hours of training.” Dr. Bush reinforced how the proposal would create a double standard, stating, “Our Veterans would be getting a lower standard of care than they would in any of the other top hospitals in the U.S. I don’t know about you, but that sits really poorly with me.”

While the ancients used herbal remedies to alleviate pain, the course of health care, medicine, and surgery truly was transformed when, in 1842, Dr. Crawford Long used ether to alleviate pain while removing cysts from a patient’s neck. Since then, our specialty has advanced countless innovations – from better anesthetics to drug-free chronic pain management – but our leadership and contributions often go unnoticed by others. We’re working hard to change that.

This fall, Dr. Harter, Anesthesiology Editor-in-Chief James Rathmell, MD, MBA, and ASA Assistant Treasurer Crystal Wright, MD, FASA, will appear in a public television documentary segment hosted by Dennis Quaid titled “Commitment to Care.” The documentary illustrates how anesthesiology has transformed surgery and is committed to patient safety and advancing medicine beyond the OR, including:

  • The innovative history behind anesthesia and anesthesiology, such as the development of safer, more effective anesthetics and techniques, monitoring protocols, and equipment; managing acute and chronic pain; and using simulators to advance training and patient safety
  • Anesthesiologists’ role as guardians of patient safety through developing practice standards, guidelines, and guidance to address new and evolving clinical topics such as GLP-1 receptor agonist use before surgery, and how we are often the backbone for the function and success of many areas of a health care institution
  • How the specialty cares for patients during the moments that matter most – the birth of a child, receiving a lifesaving transplant or life-changing joint replacement, or on the front lines of a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic – and the breadth and depth of anesthesiologists’ education and training, flexibility, and expertise.

Anesthesiologists remain the go-to experts for national and local media on topics related to anesthesia and pain medicine.

We have conducted ongoing media outreach in response to Anesthesiology journal research, breaking news, advocacy initiatives, and other timely topics or guidance announced by ASA. Some examples of this outreach include: ASA’s recommendations to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on racial disparities in pulse oximeter accuracy, a letter to the editor published in Anesthesiology on ASA’s Statement on Pain During Cesarean Delivery, and a study in Anesthesiology on how the use of propofol may help to find difficult-to-detect polyps during colonoscopy.

As a result, ASA and its spokespersons have been quoted in 520 stories to date, potentially garnering over 9.4 billion views. Our expertise and thought leadership were featured on major outlets, including CBS News, CNN, U.S. News & World Report, and Yahoo! News. These activities educate reporters and the public about the latest news and science from the specialty and, in turn, keep ASA’s advocacy initiatives and value front and center.

You can help us tell your story. We rely on members to identify new storylines such as timely research you are publishing or innovations you are leading in your institution.