The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine is integral to the healthcare, education and research missions at OHSU.  In this extraordinary time, we have proudly stepped up our efforts to meet these commitments. 

We provide clinical services at OHSU hospitals and collaborate with the VA Portland Health Care System and Hillsboro Medical Center. We specialize in providing excellent perioperative care and anesthesia services to our patients using state-of-the-art technology and pharmacologic tools with an emphasis on patient safety.

Pre-operative assessment is facilitated by electronic data collecting systems and is integral to minimizing patient risk. Along with our hospitalist partners we are optimizing the use of telemedicine while maintaining sufficient capacity to see higher risk patients.  The preoperative medicine clinic ensures elective patients are appropriately screened for SARS- CoV-2 and has initiated a pre-anesthesia evaluation for patients previously infected. 

In the operating rooms our anesthesiologists work in care teams with our fellows, residents, and nurse anesthetists as well as independently. Post-operative care is under the medical supervision of our department. We play a prominent role in the caring for patients in the cardiovascular, neurosciences, and newly-launched virtual intensive care units. In the ICU our team includes anesthesiology intensivists, critical care fellows, physician assistants/nurse practitioners, and residents. The role of our team in the ICUs is comprehensive and critical to achieving the highest quality outcomes for our patients.

The Comprehensive Pain Center (CPC) team includes physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, acupuncturists, rolfers, massage therapists, and a naturopath who deliver truly comprehensive care and offer more training opportunities for fellows and residents. Patients benefit from both traditional (e.g., blocks, pumps, stimulators) and non-traditional (e.g., biofeedback and acupuncture) pain management techniques. The department is also nationally recognized in pediatric pain management.

Our regional anesthesiology team was among the leading centers in the country to develop an ambulatory regional anesthesia program.  Our Adult Pain Service provides ongoing postoperative support for patients receiving ongoing regional or neuraxial analgesia in addition to providing their consultative expertise in the management of complex pain patients. Our peripheral nerve catheter/home pump program allows orthopedic surgery patients to benefit from continuous pain relief for days while recovering at home following surgery.

Our department's research program is robust, including basic science with labs at both OHSU and the VA and clinical research. Attending physicians, fellows, residents, and medical students work collaboratively with Ph.D. scientists in our labs to advance human health.  Our basic science program is focused on neuroscience and renal physiology. Our clinical research is focused on patient safety and pain management.

Our department is dedicated to providing the highest quality and most innovative education training in the country for residents, fellows, and medical students, with trainee opportunities at OHSU and the VA. Our very active education research group focuses on lifelong learning strategies, particularly in the area of regional anesthesia. We are the proud hosts of the Anesthesia Tool Box. 

The Anesthesiology Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has consistently awarded our program full accreditation. We were the first program in the U.S. to be approved by the ACGME and ABA to allow for integrated training of research and anesthesiology, and critical care medicine and anesthesiology. We were also the first program to offer advanced curriculum options for our residents, on a voluntary basis through our ExCEL program. We offer fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesiology, Adult Critical Care, Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. The scope of our training opportunities is extensive and includes exposure to a wide variety of patient diseases and surgical procedures as well as CPC and ICU training with dedicated time in our full-body human simulation laboratory. We are a large department –with over 350 faculty and staff –yet we are a close community highly committed to teamwork to deliver the highest level of patient care, training and research.

Thank you for visiting our website to learn more about us. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Stephen T. Robinson, M.D.

Professor & Chairman