Workforce shortages and years of reimbursement cuts are forcing ASCs and anesthesia groups to think more critically about clinical and administrative inefficiencies – all while maintaining the personalized, high-quality care that has come to define a new era of outpatient services.
Two leaders in anesthesia joined Becker’s to discuss what technologies and innovations they believe will play the biggest role in shaping the future of perioperative care.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length:
Question: What innovation do you think will have the most impact on anesthesia in the next 5 years?
Vijay Sudheendra, MD. President of Narragansett Bay Anesthesia (Providence, R.I): AI-driven decision support and automation—especially in monitoring, dosing, and workflow—are poised to be the most transformative innovations in anesthesia, enabling more precise, personalized, and safer anesthetic care.
- Ultrasound guidance and virtual reality will further professional skill and patient experience.
- The shift to more personalized medicine and data-driven systems marks a fundamental change in how anesthesia will be practiced.
These innovations will not replace anesthesiologists but will augment their capabilities and allow for greater focus on complex and critical care.The integration of these technologies, along with standardized protocols and continuous education, is expected to substantially improve outcomes, safety, and efficiency in anesthesia over the next five years.
Jeff Tieder, DNAP. Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: Innovation for anesthesia in the next five years could be AI powered medical record analysis for preoperative risk stratification. Such a system could instantly scan and synthesize decades of a patient’s medical history, including labs, imaging, and operative notes, on the day of surgery. Beyond simply flagging comorbidities, it could integrate procedure specific risk models with actual surgical outcome data.
This technology would give anesthesia providers the ability to achieve more precise preoperative optimization and intraoperative planning, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. The capacity to process 60 years of medical history in moments has the potential to fundamentally change how anesthesia providers prepare for surgery.
Q: What other technologies or clinical developments in anesthesia are you watching most closely?
JT: The use of AI-assisted point of care ultrasound (POCUS) for regional anesthesia, vascular access, and gastric content assessment is a development I am watching closely. This technology has the potential to reduce the learning curve and improve consistency among providers, while maintaining the critical need for hands-on provider expertise.
As more surgical cases shift to the ambulatory surgery centers, the ability to make informed, rapid clinical decisions without the full scope of tertiary hospital resources becomes increasingly important. AI-assisted POCUS can provide immediate, high quality diagnostic information, delivering significant value to patients, ASCs, and anesthesia providers alike.
VS: Workforce shortages and reimbursement cuts are pushing hospitals and anesthesia groups to optimize operational efficiency, use more smart documentation and scheduling tools, and explore innovative models of perioperative care.
Virtual and augmented reality tools now enable high-fidelity, immersive simulations for anesthesia training, procedural practice, and patient education — proven to reduce anxiety and enhance learning retention. These are being expanded into perioperative pain management and patient communication
Handheld, AI-enhanced ultrasound systems for neuraxial and regional anesthesia have made landmark identification more accurate, now offering automated detection of structures and needle guidance — even in challenging anatomies.
