It is our privilege to serve as the primary anesthesia provider at Montefiore Health System during a period of growth. We are proud to have led the way with our colleagues to increase access to ambulatory procedures in the operating room as well as procedural suites. With our expertise in providing safe anesthesia services for ambulatory procedures, we are excited to be a partner in the newest MHS location – Greenwich Street Surgical – located in lower Manhattan. The Department of Anesthesiology is in a unique position to support MHS in their expanded footprint throughout the greater New York City area.

I am proud of our Digital Health Research Lab, which has been a key partner to the MHS Network Performance Group to improve our patient safety outcomes. Together with MHS Senior Vice President Dr. Andrew Racine, Senior Director of the Montefiore Center for Performance Improvement Dr. Fran Ganz-Lord, and MHS Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Dr. Michael Rinke, our researchers have redefined elective surgery admissions. This has led to lower rates of postoperative respiratory failure and decreased lengths of intubation in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). With these improvements, we already have evidence that we will boost our Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) star ratings.

In addition, we have expanded the Division of Critical Care Anesthesiology to ensure our sickest patients receive the best possible care. We are grateful to Montefiore Einstein leadership for providing our department with additional resources to expand the step-down unit. We also continue working on impactful quality improvement initiatives to ensure better outcomes for our patients after their stay in the SICU.

These innovations are only possible with our world-class team of providers. Throughout the past year, we have built a robust team of clinicians with 18 new faculty members in 2023. Starting in 2024, we have also hired an additional dozen faculty including international specialists who are renowned leaders in their subspecialties.

As we continue to build an academic department with national visibility, our Anesthesiology Digital Health Research Lab and clinician scientists have been hard at work conducting highquality research. This work will have an immense impact on our future patients’ outcomes. We are working on multiple clinical trials, and in 2023, we successfully completed enrollment for the first NIH-sponsored clinical trial that was co-designed by the Montefiore Einstein Department of Anesthesiology. Titled the PRIME-AIR study, this multi-center clinical trial focuses on a perioperative bundle intervention to improve postoperative respiratory outcomes for patients undergoing open abdominal surgery.

As we continue to train the next generation of anesthesiology professionals, we have developed new criteria for residency selection focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Through a new holistic residency application review process led by Vice Chairs Drs. Sujatha Ramachandran and Tracey Straker, we will continue to recruit an increasingly diverse class of residents each year. To help us reach our goals, we have appointed a new Residency Program Director, Dr. Erik Romanelli, who will support our very successful Vice Chair of Education, Dr. Ramachandran. In these efforts, we continue to work to build community and connections across our department and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition, we have developed a new research track for residents who are interested in conducting a long-term research project throughout their training.

With both new and veteran members, our department is in a wonderful position to continue to serve our patient population. Inspired by the energy and diversity of the Bronx, it is our honor to serve the Montefiore Einstein community. As we innovate through research, collaboration, and quality improvement, we continue to advance the fields of medicine and surgery and inspire tomorrow’s anesthesiology leaders.