So I know this forum is very doom and gloom, but there are two things I thought about that might impact the future in a positive way (potentially).
The first is that yes, anesthesiologists make a lot less often because they're employees now...But that's a shift that's taking place with other specialties as well. This isn't so much a benefit for anesthesiology, rather a prediction that as other specialties also continue to shift toward being employees of hospitals their salary would drop too. I don't know accurate this is:
http://www.beckershospitalreview.co...tatistics-on-physician-compensation-2015.html
But it seems to indicate that other highly paid specialists will make around anesthesia levels or worse if they work in a hospital.
To be honest I'm not sure anything can be done to stem this shift in medicine, and I think it will hit other fields hard as well. The difference is that anesthesia has already been hit (at least to a greater extent) compared to urologists for ex. if that makes sense.
The other thing I think might actually help anesthesiologists (in a rather strange way) is Sedasys. Initially I was reading about it and thought that anesthesiologists would be screwed, but I think it will hit CRNAs much harder. If robots end up replacing the need for CRNAs, in conjunction with the glut of CRNAs being produced, they'll crumple.
I do think in this hypothetical scenario there still is one significant concern facing anesthesiology: too many residency positions. So in this potential 10 year out scenario where a lot of routine stuff is done by machines, CRNAs as a field is oversaturated/dead, anesthesiologists would be doing a ton of hard cases. Therefore we'd still be very crucial, but the demand for services would be lower.
So while demand would be more inelastic (they'd pay whatever the market demands because anesthesiologists would be in charge of things only anesthesiologists could do) the volume of cases would be lower which might mean there is an overabundance of supply.
While a general decrease in anesthesiologists is predicted: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR600/RR650/RAND_RR650.pdf (page 77) in the next 10 years, it's not clear whether this will translate to an actual shortage to me.
Finally I know I'm just a medical student, and I don't know nearly as much as many of you members here. That being said, please be respectful because I really am curious what you guys think, and there is no need for personal attacks .
The first is that yes, anesthesiologists make a lot less often because they're employees now...But that's a shift that's taking place with other specialties as well. This isn't so much a benefit for anesthesiology, rather a prediction that as other specialties also continue to shift toward being employees of hospitals their salary would drop too. I don't know accurate this is:
http://www.beckershospitalreview.co...tatistics-on-physician-compensation-2015.html
But it seems to indicate that other highly paid specialists will make around anesthesia levels or worse if they work in a hospital.
To be honest I'm not sure anything can be done to stem this shift in medicine, and I think it will hit other fields hard as well. The difference is that anesthesia has already been hit (at least to a greater extent) compared to urologists for ex. if that makes sense.
The other thing I think might actually help anesthesiologists (in a rather strange way) is Sedasys. Initially I was reading about it and thought that anesthesiologists would be screwed, but I think it will hit CRNAs much harder. If robots end up replacing the need for CRNAs, in conjunction with the glut of CRNAs being produced, they'll crumple.
I do think in this hypothetical scenario there still is one significant concern facing anesthesiology: too many residency positions. So in this potential 10 year out scenario where a lot of routine stuff is done by machines, CRNAs as a field is oversaturated/dead, anesthesiologists would be doing a ton of hard cases. Therefore we'd still be very crucial, but the demand for services would be lower.
So while demand would be more inelastic (they'd pay whatever the market demands because anesthesiologists would be in charge of things only anesthesiologists could do) the volume of cases would be lower which might mean there is an overabundance of supply.
While a general decrease in anesthesiologists is predicted: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR600/RR650/RAND_RR650.pdf (page 77) in the next 10 years, it's not clear whether this will translate to an actual shortage to me.
Finally I know I'm just a medical student, and I don't know nearly as much as many of you members here. That being said, please be respectful because I really am curious what you guys think, and there is no need for personal attacks .