Anesth Analg 2004;98:1811
© 2004 International Anesthesia Research Society
doi: 10.1213/01.ANE.0000118511.89924.FA
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Financial Disclosure
Franklin Dexter, MD, PhD, and
David L. Brown, MD
Division of Management Consulting, Department of Anesthesia
Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
To the Editor:
Dr. Udelsmans editorial (1,2) questions the structure and objectivity of the Division of Management Consulting at the University of IAs Department of Anesthesia.
The Division of Management Consulting is a Division of the Department of Anesthesia, analogous to the Divisions of Obstetrical Anesthesia, Hyperbaric Medicine, and Surgical Intensive Care. The Department of Anesthesias billing office charges for the Divisions efforts.
Franklin Dexter does not receive any funds personally other than his salary from the State of Iowa, including no travel expenses or honorarium. He has tenure and no incentive program assuring that there are not undesirable financial incentives related to his work.
The Divisions responsibilities include education, research, and service. The consulting is not just internal, but external for companies, hospitals, and anesthesia groups. The consulting revenues support the Divisions education and research activities.
In addition, since each hospital and anesthesia group is an n = 1, only by teaching and consulting at many hospitals can experience be gained to foster the next generation of research in the science of OR management. In these times of scarce perioperative resources for many academic centers, we believe we all need to understand better the science that is associated with our practices.
Footnotes
Dr. Udelsman does not wish to respond.
References
- Udelsman R. The operating room: war results in casualties. Anesth Analg 2003; 97: 9367.[Free Full Text]
- Dexter F, Abouleish AE, Epstein RH, et al. Use of operating room information system data to predict the impact of reducing turnover times on staffing costs. Anesth Analg 2003; 97: 111926.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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