What Is An Anesthesiologist?

Recently there was an episode of Grey's Anatomy that gave the impression that an anesthesiologist simply puts the patient to sleep prior to surgery and sits back and reads a magazine while the surgeon operates. Using the character Dr Miranda Baileys words, "you are just the gas man". While I do realize that this is just a television drama, people often view the scenarios on these shows as a representation of the truth.

Defined by the American Association of Anesthesiologists(ASA), anesthesiology is the practice of medicine dedicated to the relief of pain and total care of the surgical patient before, during and after surgery. They are physicians of medicine who, after graduating from college with a strong background in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics obtain a medical doctorate degree after completing four years of medical school. Following medical school, they learn the medical specialty of anesthesiology during an additional four years of post medical school training one year of internship and three years in an anesthesiology residency program.