More than 65 years ago, Dr. Bjorn Ibsen, a Copenhagen anesthesiologist, was savvy enough to recognize the need to create the first ICU – the stimulus for which was the polio epidemic of 1952-53. At that time, over 300 patients a week were being admitted to his hospital in respiratory failure. Many of these patients required positive pressure ventilation and an intensive level of bedside care. Specifically, this initial action by Dr. Ibsen showed value in having an anesthesiologist intensivist to staff critical care units. Despite the field of anesthesiology being at the forefront of creating dedicated medical wards and teams to care for patients, the need for critical care services expanded faster than the number of anesthesiologists being trained.
We are now training more anesthesiologist intensivists than ever before. Anesthesia critical care medicine fellowship positions in the U.S. have more than doubled (80 in 2008-09 to 196 in 2018-19)...