A survey of academic anesthesiology. Submitted by ASA subcommittee (Task Force) on academic anesthesia manpower
An assessment of the manpower situation for academic anesthesiology was approached by means of a questionnaire concerning present and future faculty size, clinical and educational work load, and budgetary support. Replies to this questionnaire were solicited from 109 medical schools in the United States and Puerto Rico. Seven schools reported that they did not currently have a Department of Anesthesiology, 12 schools must be classified as 'non-respondents', and replies from four schools were received too late to be tabulated. Therefore, the responses from 86 schools of medicine currently organized to include a Department of Anesthesiology comprise the basis from which the information for this report has been drawn. An overwhelming majority of the schools, 88 percent, described their anesthesiology departments as 'autonomous departments'. Only a small number, ten of 86, indicated that the anesthesiology department was a 'division of surgery' or shared autonomy jointly with surgery. Recommendations for anesthesia faculty are given.