Dr. Maninder Singh is an academic Cardiac Anesthesiologist. He's been out of his fellowship now for four and a half years. And he's in a large academic medical center in Cleveland, Ohio. In our conversation, we talk about everything that you need to know about the field.
Check out The Premed Years Podcast Episode 256 where I interviewed the dean of the brand new medical school, Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Also check out all our other podcasts on MedEd Media.
Being the medical student that loves everything, he was interested in every rotation he was on. And he found that anesthesiology was the perfect mixture of everything. So it was more of a decision of exclusion where after he excluded everything else, the only one left was anesthesia.
What really drove him to the specialty was being close to the fire, and it gets ugly really quickly, then you get to control things and everything gets back to normal.
Cardiac was fun for him too. He always had that interest in cardiology because of the physiology. So it's the level of understanding and the impact you can have on the patient in an acute setting. Not to mention the outcomes you get to see right away were the things he was attracted to cardiology.
What really drew him to anesthesiology over emergency medicine is because the days are a little more regimen from a standpoint that he was able to have more control over his schedule. It made more sense to him back them.
"Being a team leader, regardless of the setting is the most important trait."
Maninder cites the traits that lead to becoming a good anesthesiologist such as being a good leader and a good communicator. Also, you have to be confident in your skills. He best describes it as being closest to the fire without being inside the fire. He also mentions that cardiography has become huge in the last five to ten years.
Maninder explains having a subspecialty gives you different options within the field. And from the patient population standpoint, it's different when you're putting a four-old-baby to sleep versus a 30-year-old athlete with an ACL tear to sleep. And versus a 90-year-old person with another severe condition to sleep. So it depends based on the type of surgery, the comorbidities of the patient, etc.
"You need a certain group of people that get advanced training in that particular field to provide the best care for the patient."
The field is changing dramatically with all the procedures they have available. So it's nice to be an expert for that exact procedure and that exact population.
Maninder cites cardiovascular as the number cause of death. From a cardiac standpoint, cases they deal with are bypass surgery, issues with valves. Moreover, congenital cardiac patients are living longer now so they see them in their adult lives.
From a heart failure standpoint, there is a huge shortage for heart transplant organs. As a result, lots of people are placed on assist devices until an organ is available.
50% of their cases are cardio-thoracic which includes lung surgery as well. And some cardiac surgery which is half bypass operation and half of which are valve replacements or valve repairs.
There are lots of community-based programs that are busy and have a huge demand for cardiac anesthesia. It used to be that after the surgeon does the surgery and comes for bypass, and now you call the cardiologist to the operating room...
