Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Anesthesiology Medical Students

Course Director: Bill Gross, MD, PhD 

Course Description: In this course students will learn about the care of perioperative patients throughout all phases of perioperative care. The focus will be on performing a preoperative evaluation and identifying risk factors, intraoperative management (including management of common problems) and post-operative care (including acute pain management). Procedural skills taught will include venipuncture, peripheral IV placement, and basic airway management (mask ventilation and intubation). Students will be introduced to invasive monitoring (arterial lines/central venous lines) and regional anesthesia procedures (spinal/epidural/nerve blocks).

Locations: Froedtert Hospital, Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital, Milwaukee VA Medical Center, and Children's Wisconsin

Time commitment: 2 weeks

IV Placement & Airway Management for Eye Surgery

Course Director: Lara India, MD

Description: In this course students will learn to develop skills of IV placement and basic airway management in the operating room of the Froedtert Hospital Eye Clinic. Students will also learn to do preoperative evaluations of ophthalmological patients and identify risk factors by taking the patient's history and performing physical examinations, with integrating preoperative laboratory work-up. Students will be involved in all aspects of the peri- and post-operative period of ophthalmological patients.

Location: Froedtert & MCW Eye Institute

Time Commitment: 2 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:45 a.m.-5 p.m., no night call, no weekends

Anesthesiology Outside the Operating Room

Course Director: Zafar Iqbal, MD

Description: In this course students will learn about the perioperative care of in- and out-patients outside the main operating room, e.g. the Eye Clinic, GI Lab, the interventional radiology suite, MRI, etc. The focus will be on the unique aspects of preoperative care, identifying risk factors, intraoperative procedures, anesthetic management, postoperative care including acute pain management and care of the perioperative patient while in a procedure room setting away from the main Operating Room. Procedural skills taught will include venipuncture, peripheral IV placement, basic airway management, and other skills necessary for sedation and/or general anesthesia.

Location: VA Medical Center

Time Commitment: 2 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:45 a.m.-5 p.m., no night call, no weekends 

Introduction to Pain Management

Course Director: Omar Dyara, DO

Description: Students will be involved in initial consultations and follow up visits for patients with chronic pain. Experience will provide multiple opportunities to learn physical exam skills, specifically exams pertaining to the neck and low back.

Location: Froedtert & MCW Tosa Health Center

Time Commitment: 2 weeks, Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., no night call, no weekends

General Anesthesia

Course Director: Madhuri Setaluri, MD

Description: In this course students will learn all phases of perioperative care: preoperative assessment, intraoperative management, and postoperative care in the private practice setting of the Aurora West Allis Medical Center. Student will learn and deepen the following skills: peripheral IV placement, airway management, invasive monitoring, and peripheral/regional/neuraxial procedures.

Location: Aurora West Allis Medical Center

Time Commitment:  4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 7 a.m. until cases are complete, no night call, no weekends 

Anesthesiology Research

Course Directors: Julie Freed, MD, PhD, and Chris Roberts, MD, PhD

Description: In this course students will learn the basic overview into how to conduct and discuss basic research in cardiovascular anesthesia. Specifically, the research will examine how cellular and mitochondrial calcium dynamics are altered and the concomitant changes in mitochondrial bioenergetics and redox potential during and after volatile anesthetics exposure and how this may be involved in anesthetic cardioprotection against acute ischemia and reperfusion injury. By the conclusion of this rotation, the student should be able to have a basic understanding of cardiovascular changes at the organ, cellular and subcellular levels during ischemia and reperfusion injury and how volatile anesthetics and other drugs confer protection by differential modulation at the different levels of organizational complexity.

Location: Medical Education Building, Anesthesiology Laboratory

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., no night call, no weekends, 90% laboratory research

Anesthesiology Acting Internship

Course Director: Rachel Budithi, MD

Description: The Anesthesiology Acting Internship's goal is to refresh and broaden the knowledge of Anesthesiology gained during the Junior year. Learn advanced hemodynamic monitoring and application of physiology and pharmacology with an emphasis on cardiovascular anesthesiology. This is done with hands on experience in the technical aspects of Anesthesiology, e.g. airway management, tracheal intubation, placement of venous and arterial catheters and management of pulmonary artery catheters, along with understanding the risks and benefits of various anesthetic techniques.

Location: Froedtert Hospital

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, 6:30 a.m. until cases are complete, 1 week of in-house night float with additional home call of 1-2 times per rotation, 2 weekend shifts

Anesthesiology for Trauma and Emergencies

Course Director: Olga Kaslow, MD, PhD

Description: The student will work as a member of the Trauma Anesthesiology Team and will respond to all emergent intubations and CODE 4 with the anesthesiology staff and the residents. Student involvement begins in the Emergency Department with a "Trauma Alert" page. All Students taking this course must have a working pager.

Location: Froedtert Hospital

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m., 6 on-call nights 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., up to 2 weekend call nights or days

Clinical Anesthesiology

Course Director: Christopher Plambeck, MD

Description: This course will provide the student the opportunity to participate as a member of the anesthesia care team. The student will participate in the preoperative evaluation, intraoperative management, and postoperative care of patients undergoing surgeries in a multitude of surgical disciplines.

Location: Froedtert Hospital

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:30 a.m. until scheduled patients are seen, no call or weekends

Cardiac Anesthesia - VA

Course Director: Sweeta Gandhi, MD

Description: In this course students will be exposed to the principles and practices of cardiothoracic anesthesia, applied cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology, and the management of cardiothoracic surgery patient in intraoperative setting. The course will provide the student a clinical experience in performing the preoperative assessment, and understanding the intraoperative management of the cardiothoracic surgical patient from the perspective of the cardiac anesthesiologist. The student will work with the cardiac anesthesia fellow, residents and faculty members who are assigned to patients undergoing major cardiothoracic procedures.

Location: Milwaukee VA Medical Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:30 a.m. until scheduled patients are seen, no night call or weekends

Cardiac Anesthesia - Froedtert

Description: This course will broaden the knowledge of anesthesiology gained during the junior year. Learn advanced hemodynamic monitoring and application of physiology and pharmacology with emphasis on cardiac and cardiovascular anesthesia. Hands on experience in technical aspects of anesthesiology, e.g. airway management, intubation, management of pulmonary artery catheters.

Location: Froedtert Hospital

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. or until scheduled patients are seen, no call or weekends.

Obstetric Anesthesiology

Description: Students will observe the practice and execution of obstetric anesthesia. They will be expected to take focused histories and discuss the patients with OB Anesthesia attendings. They will read and discuss topics pertinent to OB Anesthesia, and prepare and present a discussion of a related topic or case analysis. Please note that it is not the expectation that students will physically perform the regional anesthetics.

Location: Froedtert Birth Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m. or until cases are complete, no night call or weekends

Advanced Anesthesia

Description: For students with proven interest in anesthesia in the previous years. In this rotation, the student is going to be exposed in subspecialties of anesthesiology. It will consist of two weeks of adult general and cardiac anesthesiology and two weeks of pediatric anesthesiology. The student will be required to perform a preoperative evaluation of the patient and discuss the cases with the attending or resident. Will be taught IV placement, arterial line placement, airway management of adults and pediatrics, and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) performance and interpretation. The rotation will be an overview of the anesthetic considerations of a broad spectrum and variety of surgical procedures.

The rotation is an opportunity of students interested in anesthesia to be exposed in more advanced cases and function as a member of the team.

Location: Children's Wisconsin or Milwaukee VA Medical Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 7 a.m. until assigned cases are completed, weekends and night call highly encouraged if available

Critical Care

Course Director: Christofer Barth, MD

Description: The 4th year medical student will rotate through the Critical Care Services at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center. The student will act clinically at the level of a post-graduate year one resident in regard to evaluating the patient's medical history, performing an admission physical exam, and formulating an organ system based approach to optimize the health of the critical ill patient.

Location: Aurora Medical Respiratory ICU

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 6:45 a.m.-5:45 p.m., optional night call, 11 weekend hours

High-Risk Anesthesia Consultation

Course Director: Chrissy Boxhorn, MD

Description: High-Risk Anesthesia Consultation is a four-week M4 ambulatory rotation with the high-risk anesthesia consult service at Froedtert Hospital. The focus will be on performing a comprehensive and concise preoperative history and physical exam, evaluating the patient's current medical status, and assessing the clinical risk profile to help guide the perioperative plan (additional preoperative testing or consultations, intraoperative anesthetic plan, and postoperative pain management plan).

Location: Pre-Admission Testing Clinic, Preoperative Clinic, CFAC building, Froedtert Hospital

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. or until all patients have been seen, no nights or weekends

Ambulatory Anesthesiology

Course Director: Brian Hinde, MD

Description: The shift from hospital based to less expensive surgery center settings (for appropriate patients) continues to grow. This course will provide the opportunity for senior medical students to expand on and enhance their previous experience with perioperative anesthetic management of adult patients, with particular emphasis on considerations relevant to the ambulatory setting.

During the 4 week rotation, the students will be assigned to work directly with anesthesia providers on cases that will provide the greatest learning opportunity. Students will learn about what is unique with regard to patient management in a free standing surgery center setting (as it relates to other types of surgical management). They will participate in preoperative screening and evaluation, inoperative (hands on) delivery of anesthesia and postoperative management in preparation for discharge to home.

Location: Sargeant Health Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, 6:30 a.m. at earliest to 5 p.m. at latest, no nights or weekends

Pain Management

Course Director: Omar Dyara, DO

Description: Students will acquire knowledge that will be useful and applicable to any chosen medical specialty. Students will learn the assessment and management of patients in a variety of pain states, including chronic pain in a multidisciplinary setting, as well as acute and cancer pain whenever the opportunity arises. The students learn through active participation in patient care. Student will also learn about many different types of pain syndromes and the use and risks of opiod medication. The pharmacology of pain treatment and pain medications will be an integral part of the experience. Text material will be available.

Location: Froedtert & MCW Tosa Health Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, 7:30 a.m. until scheduled patients are seen, no nights or weekends

Cardiovascular and Respiratory Regulation During Anesthesia

Course Director: Thomas Ebert, MD, PhD

Description: In this course, students will earn how to conduct and to participate in clinical research in Anesthesiology. The lab's primary area of interest is the frail, elderly population considering elective surgery. The research intervention is a nutritional supplementation and exercise program designed to improve frailty status prior to surgery, and consequently improve surgical outcomes.

Other areas of interest are the vascular effects of anesthetic drugs in a human model, the influence of anesthetic agents on neuro-cognitive function in the morbidly obese and geriatric patient populations, and the autonomic effects of sedative doses of anesthetics in volunteers and patients.

Location: VA Medical Center

Time Commitment: 4 weeks, Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., no night call or weekends