At an annual conference last Wednesday, Dr. Mark J. Lema, M.D., chair of UB's anesthesiology department and professor for school of medicine was designated president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
One of the most pressing issues at the conference was establishing patient-safety protocol policies when using anesthesia, Lema said. Members of other specialties now want to perform deep sedation of patients, a procedure previously performed solely by licensed anesthesiologists.
"Although other specialties think that they can do aspects of what we do because we make it look safe, they also have to follow policy," Lema said. "Just like the airline industry, it's a very high risk but low-incidence sort of business."
Lema said that changes to Medicare could affect anesthesiologists on a national level, as well as UB's residency program.
"It will have an impact," Lema said, because "if the law is changed by Medicare, we'd be able to work with more residents."
In addition to being ranked in the top 25 by the National Institute of Health, the anesthesiology program at UB that is well recognized by the national committee, he said.
UB has 12 residents domestically as well as highly qualified international residents. Out of these 12, half of them have fellowships in 3 different areas.
Lema said that advances in anesthesiology have lowered the fatality rates for patients dying due to anesthesia, from about 1 in 15,000 when he first started practicing about 25 years ago to 1 in 250,000 today.
"It's very, very safe, and we want to keep it that way," he said.
Anesthesiology is a department that is small but important in medicine, Lema said.
"Anesthesia has only 5 percent of the total practicing physicians in the country," he said. "There aren't a lot of specialties, but we deal with pain management and cardiac health."
Lema attributes his election success to his role as the editor of the ASA's newsletter, which he described as being more of a 50 page monthly magazine rather than a newsletter.
"Doing that for six years, with the editorials which I would write each month, familiarized people with my policies," Lema said. "So when I decided to run for first vice president, I was unopposed."
Estimating that the ASA has about 41,000 members, Lema said that the annual meetings usually have an attendance of around 18,000, and function as a gathering place to discuss issues and policies affecting the educational, fiscal and patient safety aspects of the field of anesthesiology.
"Oftentimes, when you think of presidents of national societies, you always think 'It's going to happen somewhere else, it can't possibly happen in my hometown.'" he said.
Lema is a graduate of Canisius College, and earned his master's and doctoral degrees from UB. After receiving his medical degree from Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, Lema completed his anesthesiology residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Lema was named chair of UB's anesthesiology department in 2001, and is currently a part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's End-of-Life panel.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
