Department of Anesthesia (TWH)

The mission of the University Health Network is to provide, promote and to advance patient care by fostering excellence in health care delivery, teaching and research. The hospital will endeavor to meet the following goals by making optimal use of the resources to:

1. provide a single standard of the highest quality for those individuals who require health care, in settings that assure comfort, compassion, dignity and professional care;
2. achieve national pre-eminence and international recognition as a centre of excellence in the care of patients with complex and difficult medical problems requiring the full resources of a tertiary care medical centre;
3. develop and participate in programs that promote health for the communities and individuals we serve;
4. conduct research in, and advance the knowledge of, the prevention, cause, and treatment of disease and disability;
5. provide educational opportunities for students and professions in the health sciences;
6. promote health in the community through the provision of ongoing programs and services which are relevant to the identified needs;
7. continue to develop our long-standing affiliation with the University of Toronto and other educational institutions with respect to mutually beneficial research and educational activities of the highest quality;
8. foster an organizational environment such that multi-disciplinary groups of health care workers and volunteers may fulfill their responsibilities to the highest standard of performance and feel pride, dignity and satisfaction in their work;
9. work with other health care providers and regulatory agencies to promote general community health, public accountability, and excellence in all manner of care and support given.

Toronto Western Hospital is a division of the University Health Network and is one of the teaching hospitals of the University of Toronto. There are thirteen operating rooms. There are various aspects of anesthesia: neuroanesthesia, spinal surgery, dental, orthopedics, general surgery, plastics, ophthalmology, outpatient anesthesia, acute and chronic pain, same day admission clinic, and preoperative anesthesia consultation clinic. There is no cardiovascular, obstetric or pediatric anesthesia. This site provides trauma emergency care for head injury, spinal injury, hand injury and ocular injury.

The research is mainly clinical research. The areas of focus are in neuroanesthesia, outpatient anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and pain. Dr. F. Chung is the supervisor for outpatient anesthesia research.

The Clinical/Research Fellow must have a specialist degree. He/she will do three days of clinical work and two days of research. Four weeks of holidays are allowed annually. The appointment is for one to two years.

Duties of the Neuroanesthesia Fellow
a) Clinical
b) On call
c) Research
d) Neuroanesthesia education

a) Clinical

i) Clinical neuroanesthesia 2 days/week
ii) General surgery 1 day/week
iii) Research 2 days/week (averaged over the year)

The assignment of the neurosurgical cases will be related to clinical studies that he or she may be doing and there should be consideration to allow the person to do similar cases even on their general days whenever this is possible.

b) On Call (4/5 days per month). There is no 1st call, only 2nd call is required.

c) Research

Research projects with consultants in anesthesia and/or neurosurgery. May be clinical, laboratory or ICU studies. The aim is to:

i) develop at least one new project work through preparation by review of literature, writing up the ethics and the study protocol
ii) complete the study by getting consents, doing the actual data collection, analyzing the data, writing an abstract for presentation at a meeting and writing a full paper for publication.

Each fellow will be assigned to one consultant as their mentor/supervisor for overall supervision. The fellow may do research projects with any members of the department.

Current Areas of Neuroanesthesia Research

i) Intraoperative evoked potential monitoring
ii) Awake craniotomy
iii) Interventional neuroradiology
iv) Carotid endarterectomy

d) Education

a) Sessions within the department with staff and residents - these will be arranged throughout the year as seminars and/or lectures with discussions led by anesthesia personnel, invited speakers such as neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neurologists. Attending neurosciences rounds on a weekly basis and other neurosurgical and anesthesia meetings within the city.
b) Meetings - ASA, CAS, IARS, Society of Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care (SNAC) - attend/present at one
c) Spend time in other areas of neurosciences, neuroradiology, neurosurgical ICU, neurosurgical laboratories
d) Teach students/residents
e) List of topics to be covered in seminars

i) Basic neurophysiology and anatomy
ii) Basic principles of neuroanesthesia
iii) Anesthesia for patients with aneurysm, AVM, brain tumors
iv) Trauma, head and spinal cord injury
v) Epilepsy and awake craniotomy procedures
vi) Intraoperative monitoring
vii) Carotid disease
viii) Interventional neuroradiology
ix) Cerebral ischemia and protection

 

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