Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 5/10/2007

Question
i am an eighth grader at south point middle school in Ohio. i am doing a project on which we had to chose a career we are interested in and i chose anesthesiology. i was wondering what you do exactly from your perspective. i want to know if you have any recommendations for me to plan to do in high school. i know the road to be an anesthesiologist isn't easy and i was wondering if there is any jobs you could have while in college. if you could e-mail me back at allil@myway.com that would be great. thank you so much for taking time to read this!  

Answer
What we do is provide anesthesia and pain relief during medical procedures as well as monitoring physiological functions like blood pressure and heart rate. It's exciting, challenging, stressful but very rewarding. The road is long...4 yrs college...4 yrs medical school and 4 yrs anesthesia residency. In high school just learn as much as you can. A lot of classes seem silly and you'll never need them, but you'd be surprised how much is really useful. There are no anesthesia specific jobs in college although you might find a research opportunity.

Good Luck,

Ronald Levy, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston