Message from the Chair

The Department has undergone a radical transformation in the past year, with significant positive changes in ALL our programs, from the new dynamic resident curriculum to the March opening of the Douglas University Hospital to the hiring of 18 new faculty.

A real highlight of the year was receiving a 5-year accreditation, which is the maximum number of years allowable, for our residency program. In addition, the ACGME has approved the Department to move from the traditional 3-year residency program to a 4-year residency program. To place this into context, only 40 of the 131 U.S. Anesthesia residency programs currently have 5-year accreditation. Moreover, only 19% of U.S. Anesthesiology programs are approved as 4-year programs. In fact, UC Irvine is now one of only 2 California Anesthesia residencies to be a 4-year program with full 5-year accreditation.

The residency program is unique in many ways. For example, we have a Wellness Program for first year residents that is the only one of it's kind in the country. In recognition of the stressors and demands associated with residency training, CA-1 Residents participate in a 16-week Stress Management Intervention that teaches them behavioral, social, and cognitive coping strategies and provides tools for managing the both work and family stressors. In addition to the program, the department has opened a Wellness Center with equipment available to residents, faculty and staff that allows easy access to stress reducing exercise.

Wellness is only part of the completely revamped curriculum, which also includes ethics and professionalism series as well as Grand Rounds with monthly nationally and internationally recognized speakers who not only give presentations to the department, but also give a special resident lecture. The Department has established multiple workshops for topics as varied as airway management, regional anesthesia, and educating adult learners. These exciting programs dovetail with new, innovative teaching methods, including the use of interactive real-time video conferencing in our Education Center to allow all residents, even those rotating at outside locations, to participate in all didactic sessions.

The Department Simulation Center is scheduled to go live in Winter 2010 and will serve as an educational hub for our residents and faculty, but also for the region.

Clinically, the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care has never been stronger. Our focus on compliance, quality care and safety has resulted in a clean bill of health from CMS. Clinical care by the Department has always been excellent, but having CMS recognize and approve the changes instituted by the department is significant.

Our department is among the 5% of national anesthesia departments that use an electronic record keeping system, and indeed we are now a Site of Excellence for our system. Electronic records are the future; look at the changes being advanced at a national level through health care reform and electronic records are at the top the list, so our department is ahead of the curve. Electronic medical records improve patient safety by increasing the amount of information captured.

The department has made pain management a priority, establishing a regional anesthesia service, an acute pain service, and moving the chronic pain service to newly renovated space in Gottschalk Medical Plaza. These changes, which have invigorated and renewed the pain program, were made possible through the addition of dynamic new faculty. Indeed the department is adding 12 new faculty to the pain and clinical staff between July and December 2009, which is in addition to the 6 faculty added last year. Named one of U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Hospitals, the new Douglas University Hospital is the only level 1 trauma center in Orange County. The beautiful operating rooms have state of the art equipment and help to heal a diverse population.

On the research front, recent rankings of NIH funding revealed that our Department has moved from 44th in the country to 26th among anesthesia departments. Given the incredibly tight funding situation in Washington this is another major feat. The US government, through the NIH, provides the most money for research. Competition for NIH funds is fierce - currently only 7-10% of submitted grants are funded - thus great value is placed on NIH funding.

I want to conclude with a strong emphasis on the amazing changes that have been made in the department, changes that are helping us build a nationally prominent department with excellence in clinical care, education and research as well as fiscal responsibility. Equally important is our departmental emphasis on creating and living a culture of respect, transparency, and teamwork. This is done by fostering and supporting a department ethic that rewards positive behavior, problem solving rather than complaining, and open communication.

These are exciting times in the dept of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care at University of California Irvine, we have under gone an amazing transformation, a renaissance. We invite you to explore our website and learn more about our programs and department.

Sincerely,

Zeev N. Kain, MD, MBA
Chair, Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care
Associate Dean for Clinical Research