Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Effective management of intraoperative blood pressure and oxygenation is critical to ensuring patient safety and reducing the risk of perioperative complications. Anesthesia residents play a central role in identifying and managing these conditions under the supervision of attending anesthesiologists. Variability in training backgrounds, such as differences between foreign medical graduates (FMGs) and U.S. medical graduates (USMGs), may influence clinical decision-making and responsiveness during these critical situations. FMGs may be less familiar with the clinical environment, communication styles, and workflow in the U.S., compared to USMGs. Previous research have not found the impact of training backgrounds on general clinical performance, but little is known about their specific influence on anesthesiology practices, particularly in managing intraoperative hypotension and hypoxemia. This retrospective cohort study aims to examine the association between FMG versus USMG anesthesia residents and their management of intraoperative hypotension or hypoxemia. Insights from this study could inform residency training programs and enhance strategies for improving intraoperative patient care. Students will participate in data cleansing, cohort construction, confounder adjustment, and manuscript drafting during this process. Students will develop skills in statistical coding using R and Stata, and will have opportunities of presenting this project in academic conferences such as ASA Annual Meeting, and submitting an original article to a PUBMED-indexed journal as a co-author.