As the world faced unprecedented times and a global health care pandemic, physician anesthesiologists have taken their experience into a critical care setting to lead care for the sickest of COVID-19 patients. The specialty's expertise and leadership was hailed by ABC News, calling physician anesthesiologists “special heroes in the fight against coronavirus” and have been consistently featured in media coverage and on social channels.
Outreach efforts to highlight the critical role of physician anesthesiologists during the pandemic first began in February with the promotion of ASA's recommendations for providers on caring for patients with COVID-19 and continued throughout March and April as ASA issued statements, news releases and alerts to highlight critical issues and information such as addressing the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), increasing access to ventilators by repurposing anesthesia gas machines, discussing the potential dangers of sharing ventilators, addressing drug shortages, advocating for economic support of the...
