Vigilance is the
watchword fo
anesthesiologists

RUNNINGS

Meet one of the faces of success

Morris Brown, M.D., chairman of
the Department of Anesthesiology
at Henry Ford Hospital, and a
member of the Henry Ford Medical
Group, is board certified in three
specialties: internal medicine,
anesthesiology and critical care.
He talks about his passion for
anesthesiology.

Anesthesiology is a relatively young
discipline. Effective surgical anes-
thesia has only been available for
about 150 years, with the greatest
advances occurring since 1950.
There's been an explosive growth in
our knowledge and understanding
of anesthetic agents and techniques
that is very exciting. Today, I use
few of the same agents I used as a
resident, and there are always new
drugs on the horizon.

Yet, anesthesiology is noted for its
focus on patient safety, which we've
improved significantly over the past
25 years. New technology for
patient monitoring, and the intro-
duction of new drugs have made a
significant impact on patient safety
and reduced anesthesia-related
complications and deaths.

The watchword of the discipline is
vigilance. When things happen in
the operating room, they happen
very quickly. In other specialties, a
physician has the opportunity to go
through a prolonged thought
process, order tests, wait for
results, analyze them, consider
diagnoses and begin treatment.
In the OR, all that happens in
moments.

As an anesthesiologist, my interac-
tion with the patient is brief, but
intense. I need to establish rapport
quickly, and try to allay patient
fears as much as possible prior to
administering anesthesia. The
patient's medical history helps me
determine the type and dosage of
anesthetic to use, whether it is a
regional technique, such as a spinal
or epidural, or general anesthesia
with the patient asleep.

mal patient care,
since decisions
and interven-
tions must be
made very
quickly.

The introduction
of newer
anesthetic
agents has
resulted in
patients awakening sooner after
surgery and being more comfort-
able with less pain and nausea than
in the past.

My goal is to provide a seamless
continuum of care, from the
preoperative assessment, to
intraoperative monitoring and
treatment, through the immediate
postoperative recovery period.
My interaction with the patient
following surgery is usually
concluded with my postoperative
assessment of the patient's anesthe-
sia experience regarding side effects
and complications.

I wear many hats at Henry Ford.
I serve as an administrator as
chairman of the Department of
Anesthesiology, as a clinician in the
OR and Intensive Care Unit, and as
a teacher in my role as director of
the residency program. I especially
enjoy working with medical
students and residents. By teaching
them, I, too, continue to learn.
Together, we try to identify best
practices using evidence-based
medicine.

My father is an anesthesiologist,
which certainly influenced my
choice of specialty. After complet-
ing my training in internal medicine
and anesthesiology in the Harvard
system, I returned to the Detroit
area to work with him.

My brother is a vascular surgeon,
my daughter is a pediatric resident
and her husband is an internal
medicine resident. It seems like
medicine is our family business.

In the operating room, two doctors
care for each patient: the surgeon
and the anesthesiologist. Good
communication is essential for opti-

For more information or to make an
appointment call 1-800-HENRYFORD or
visit our Web site www.henryford.com

1 2 • APRIL 2006 • JNPLATINUM

HEALTH SYSTEM

The Cayman gets 20 mpg in the
city and 28 mpg on the highway, but
I'm sure that's while driving the speed
limit. Good luck keeping this car at
65 mph.
With true mid-car engine place-
ment (there's no back seat, but storage
in the trunk and under the hood), the
car handles much easier than the rear
engine Porsche Carrera, and has been

rated by Motor Trend as the world's
best-
handling car. It also won Playboy's
2006 Car of the Year award.
The dashboard is easy to read, the
controls are uncomplicated and the
seats are so comfortable and form fit-
ting, you can drive for hours at a time.
The base price is 858,900, and the
black beauty I drove cost 567,280 and
included 19-inch wheels, Bi-Xenon
headlamps and self-dim mirrors and
rain sensor.
Sure that's a lot of money for a
two-seater car that'll carry about four
grocery bags if you make your passen-
ger walk home, but as Joel Goodson
once told us, "Sometimes, you just
gotta say, 'What the ...' " ❑

Thanks to Fred Lavery of Birmingham
for allowing Cool Runnings to cruise
around with the Porsche Cayman.
Special thanks to the Sunglass Hut at the
Somerset Collection in Troy for the Ray-
Ban Wayfarers.