The Future of Anesthesia Progress

Field: Dentistry (Health Sciences)

In the past 4 years, I have accomplished many of my goals for Anesthesia Progress. The entire look of the journal has been updated. Color has been added to all pages so that authors no longer have to choose between black and white or color figures, tables, and graphs based on cost. The content of Anesthesia Progress has also been expanded. Thanks to Associate Editor Dr Mark Saxen, a new section featuring synopses of articles relevant to office-based anesthesia from other journals has been added. I always look forward to reading this new section. The Continuing Education Section in Memory of Norman Trieger, DMD, MD, one of our past editors, has been expanded with comprehensive reviews of topics relevant to sedation and general anesthesia practitioners in dentistry. Thank you to Dr James Tom for that effort. The journal publishes more articles than previously, as you are not doubt aware. The number of pages has been increased by 25%. A new section, Brief Communications from the Journal of the Japanese Dental Society of Anesthesiology (JDSA), has taken the place of the yearly "Abstracts from the Journal of JDSA," which was started with my predecessor and longest serving editor, Dr Joel Weaver. My thanks to Dr Takehiko Iijma, the editor of the Journal of JDSA, for his support in this endeavor. For authors, the use of the Peer Track system has greatly improved turnaround times for review and decision. The system has also allowed us to better evaluate our publication statistics. I am especially proud that we earned a CiteScore, a metric of publication influence, of 0.79, which puts Anesthesia Progress in the 50% level of all anesthesia journals. For a highly specialized journal reviewed by a small portion of a smaller profession such as ours, this is an impressive score. I hope you find our journal to be an important part of your lifelong education in this specialized area of dental practice.I am most pleased to announce that Kyle Kramer, DDS, MS, will be taking over as the new Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia Progress starting in 2019. It is a truly rewarding announcement for me personally, as Kyle is one of my former anesthesiology residents at The Ohio State University who has chosen a career in academic anesthesiology. Kyle completed 3 years of full-time anesthesiology residency and is an outstanding clinician. He is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Indiana University School of Dentistry. Dr Kramer's research focuses on the clinical application of anesthesiology, as well as how to improve anesthesia patient safety, in the dental office–based environment. He serves on the State of Indiana Attorney General's Task Force on the Opioid Crisis. Dr Kramer teaches predoctoral students their courses in clinical medicine, sedation, and local anesthesia. He trains oral surgery residents in contemporary adult and pediatric anesthesia techniques, continuing the close association between oral and maxillofacial surgery and dental anesthesiology that was, at one time, unique to The Ohio State University and should really be a model for oral surgeon training nationwide. He not only believes in, but also lives, the strong connection that exists between oral surgeons and dentist anesthesiologists. While there may be differences of opinion regarding aspects of anesthesia practice in dentistry between our 2 groups, for Kyle, these differences do not extend to the personal. He is a man of ideas, not antipathy.Dr Kramer is the current president of the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology (ADBA), where his goals are updating the board exam processes via web-based testing platforms as well as working to promote interexaminer consistency in the oral examination process. He maintains a part-time private practice in office-based anesthesia for young children and adults, and therefore, he brings a real-world office perspective to the editorship of Anesthesia Progress. Many of you have heard Dr Kramer's outstanding lectures at various American Dental Society of Anesthesiology meetings. He is an inspiring teacher. On a personal note, Kyle is congenial, collegial, and highly ethical. As I have also been a past president of ADBA, Kyle and I have discussed a variety of ADBA issues that have arisen over the years. I assure you that "doing the right thing" is a driving force in this man's vision of the world, and I am sure he will bring this same quality to Anesthesia Progress.As I turn my attention to many of the personal and family goals I have long wished to pursue, I will continue to provide anesthesia for "my" oral and maxillofacial surgeons in our Joint Commission–accredited surgery center, where we provide scores of orthognathic surgeries and thousands of dentoalveolar and other maxillofacial procedures every year. I just love giving anesthesia. It is a joy for me to start every case not knowing exactly what will happen. Will this patient respond to the hypotensive anesthesia technique I have planned? Will this diabetic patient require significant glucose control intraoperatively? Should I do an awake fiber-optic intubation for this obese patient with obstructive sleep apnea? Or will mask ventilation be adequate and videolaryngoscopy likely allow for successful intubation? And when an emergency occurs, as they inevitably will if you do enough anesthesia, I know I am ready. I thank all my former and current residents, my teachers, and, most of all, my patients, for allowing me to achieve this level of comfort when that straightforward anesthetic turns out to be not so straightforward after all.It has been an honor to be the editor of Anesthesia Progress and take over from my friend, brother, father, and mentor, Dr Joel Weaver. You will always be my guide in the darkness. Thank you to the Board of ADSA for allowing me this singular honor. Thank you to Mr Peter Burns and all the staff at Allen Press. You have all been great. Thanks are due especially to all of you, the readers of Anesthesia Progress, who have supported me these past years as editor. I hope in some small way I have contributed to you becoming a better doctor and sedation/general anesthesia provider. I am a teacher at heart. It is how I define myself. And Anesthesia Progress is one of the most important teaching tools we have in the profession. I look forward to seeing how one of our current teachers, Dr Kyle Kramer, takes Anesthesia Progress to the next level.Thank you.