By Ana Maria Crawford, MD, FASA
“One of the crucial factors in patient safety is real time, reliable monitoring of patients under anesthetic,” – Grainne Harrington for BBC World Service Health Check. (Source: https://www.lifebox.org/news/lifebox-features-on-the-bbc/).
Imagine providing sedation and anesthesia without knowing the patient’s oxygen saturation or seeing that reassuring end-tidal CO2 tracing on your monitor. Unfortunately, that is still the reality for too many perioperative settings across the globe, leaving patients at high risk for life-threatening complications. Thankfully Lifebox has taken up this cause and has made huge impact by distributing over 35,000 pulse oximeters in healthcare settings across the globe. The more recent capnography project strives to do the same for end-tidal CO2, making patients safer everywhere.
CSA members can join this effort through advocacy and direct donations on the Lifebox website. Residency Training programs can make an even greater contribution to safe surgery and anesthesia by joining the annual Lifebox Resident Challenge – starting now! The ASA Lifebox challenge is open to all residency programs and supporters who can create teams for the competition. Check out this short video to learn more and set your sites on winning this year’s challenge: https://youtu.be/Ra3U1ZW5A8A.
The Lifebox webpage has all you need to get started including instructions and guides for setting up your funding page. In 2023 over $53,000 was raised with the 2024 goal set even higher at $65,000. Everyone can make anesthesia safer while engaging in some friendly competition. Winners are honored at the ASA annual meeting, this year in Philadelphia. See you there!