Predicting the Future

Item

Number

with a

Comment

Percent

Agreeing

1. Research funding will decrease

100%

2. Clinical research will focus on outcome trials

100%

3. New drugs will be made

50%

4. New devices will be made (esp brain function)

56%

5. Molecular biology will be used in research

100%

6. The perioperative role of the anesthesiologist will increase

100%

7. Particularly in pain management

100%

8. A shortage of anesthesiologists will exist

88%

9. More non-anesthesiologists will deliver anesthesia

86%

10. Genetic testing will be used preoperatively

67%

11. Non-invasive monitoring will increase

100%

12. Checklists will guide clinical care

100%

13. Anesthetists will use electronic records

100%

14. Differences among countries in the quality of anesthesia will decrease

50%

¹ Putting the editors’ comments in particular categories sometimes required interpreting what they meant. Thus, the results in Table 14.1 probably should be considered but semi-quantitative. And, of course, the table ignores imaginative comments made by several editors because we only summarized those comments where four (25%) or more editors had addressed a particular issue.

New Drugs, Devices, and Safety

Fifty percent of editors discussing drug development predicted (item 3) a continuation of the 2000s when only one new drug (sugammadex) was introduced, pointing to the huge costs associated with new drug development, the relatively small market for anesthetic drugs, and of greatest importance, the proven efficacy and safety of currently available volatile agents, opioids, hypnotics, and neuromuscular blocking agents.

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