Furthermore, the idea of the survey is to determine, from an anesthesiology subspecialty perspective, how many subspecialists are being educated and in what particular anesthesiology subspecialties. We recognize that there are many other specialized areas of practice and that even within the named subspecialties there may be subspecialization or mixed specialization, for example, pediatric cardiac anesthesiology. Information is gathered on the number of residents who spend either six months or nine to 12 months in a particular subspecialty. Even with the reduction in the number of residents overall, there has been almost no reduction in the number of fellows in the various subspecialty training programs. This may reflect a perception by finishing residents that to optimize employment opportunities and to gain special expertise beyond that of the three-year residency, a fellowship is useful.
Residents choose the subspecialty in which to extend their education.
The American Board of Anesthesiology administers examinations and special certification in pain management and critical care medicine. These two fellowships are training 210 and 69 physicians, respectively. There has been a noticeable increase over the years in the popularity of pain management, whereas, critical care medicine has stayed relatively stable, running at about 15 percent of all fellows. Cardiothoracic has been relatively stable and popular with fellows over time, averaging about 18 percent of all fellows each year. The survey is not perfect.