Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast
The official podcast of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) is hosted by Alli Bechtel, MD, featuring the latest information and news in perioperative and anesthesia patient safety. The APSF podcast is intended for anesthesiologists, anesthetists, clinicians and other professionals with an interest in anesthesiology, and patient safety advocates around the world.
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast delivers the best of the APSF Newsletter and website directly to you, so you can listen on the go! This includes some of the most important COVID-19 information on airway management, ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), drug information, and elective surgery recommendations.
Don't forget to check out APSF.org for the show notes that accompany each episode, and email us at podcast@APSF.org with your suggestions for future episodes. Visit us at APSF.org/podcast and at @APSForg on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Episodes
299 episodes
#299 Cannabis And Anesthesia
Cannabis has gone mainstream, but perioperative risk has not improved. THC products are far more potent than they were decades ago, emergency room visits are climbing, and many patients still walk into surgery thinking that it’s safe. We want a...
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Episode 299
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16:28
#298 New APSF Brain Health Guidance For Older Adults
Postoperative delirium is one of the most common adverse events after surgery for older adults, and it can change a patient’s recovery, independence, and quality of life. We take a practical, evidence-focused look at what anesthesia teams can a...
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Episode 298
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17:38
#297 From OR To ICU: How Checklists And Clean Hands Save Lives
Transfers don’t have to feel like controlled chaos. We break down how to move a critically ill patient from the OR to the ICU with confidence by pairing structured handoffs with disciplined infection prevention—so information moves seamlessly w...
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14:38
#296 How We Build Safer Anesthesia Teams, One Trainee At A Time
A small air bubble, a missed monitor cue, a late call for help—tiny moments that can change everything. We sit down with Dr. Max Feinstein to unpack how real-world anesthesia education builds safer clinicians, why attention is our most precious...
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Episode 296
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19:25
#295 From OR To YouTube: What Happens When Patient Safety Meets Digital Storytelling
Curiosity can change a career—and a field. We sit down with pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and creator Dr. Max Feinstein to trace how a love of ethics, a pandemic schedule, and a phone camera evolved into a mission to make anesthesia safer ...
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Episode 295
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21:14
#294 From Video Laryngoscopy To ECMO: What Keeps Airway Management Safe
When air meets uncertainty, judgment matters most. We dig into the evolving landscape of airway management where video laryngoscopy, supraglottic devices, and even ECMO promise better outcomes, yet cognitive errors and non‑OR settings still acc...
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Episode 294
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19:26
#293 Reimagining Anesthesia With AI, Wearables, And Safety Culture
What if the anesthesia workstation could see trouble coming and stop it before it starts? We explore how anesthesia moves from reactive to predictive by blending AI, medical-grade wearables, and closed loop systems with a strong safety culture....
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Episode 293
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15:49
#292 Forty Years Of Obstetric Anesthesia Progress And The Work Ahead
Maternal safety has never mattered more, and the stakes span far beyond the delivery room. We revisit four decades of progress in obstetric anesthesia—from safer neuraxial techniques and airway strategies to medication safeguards—and then get h...
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17:36
#291 Managing Anesthesia Risks for Patients with Acute and Chronic Cocaine Use
A cocaine-positive patient rolls into the OR and the monitors look fine—until twenty minutes after induction, when the blood pressure plummets. We unpack that swing from sympathetic surge to sudden crash through two real cases: an emergent trau...
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Episode 291
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15:12
#290 From Blind Needles To Ultrasound: The Safety Revolution In Regional Anesthesia
A remarkable safety story runs through regional anesthesia, from the era of blind needle placement to a modern practice guided by real-time ultrasound, lipid rescue, and reliable team checklists. We walk through the key milestones that cut comp...
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Episode 290
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17:02
#289 Forty Years Of Anesthesia Medication Safety: What Works And What’s Next
A single syringe swap should never decide a patient’s fate. We pull back the curtain on forty years of anesthesia medication safety to show what truly works—then tackle the hard part: getting proven safeguards into every OR, every time. From lo...
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Episode 289
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20:07
#288 Forty Years Of Perioperative Medication Safety Progress
Seconds define outcomes in the OR, and medication safety lives in those seconds. We take you inside four decades of work by the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation to show how our field shifted from relying on vigilance to building systems tha...
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19:19
#287 A New Era For PONV: Safety, Guidelines, And Smarter Rescue
Nausea shouldn’t be the most memorable part of surgery. We take a clear, evidence-based look at postoperative nausea and vomiting, from identifying who’s at risk to building smarter prophylaxis bundles and choosing the right rescue when prevent...
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Episode 287
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29:08
#286 Pediatric Anesthesia Safety: Past Gains, Next Frontiers
Safety for children under anesthesia shouldn’t depend on luck or location. We walk through 100+ years of progress in pediatric anesthesia and focus on the next wave of innovations that can make first attempts safer, dosing smarter, and systems ...
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Episode 286
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21:02
#285 Safer Smiles
A routine dental visit should never turn into a medical emergency. We sit down with Dr. Rita Agarwal, pediatric anesthesiologist and patient safety advocate, to unpack why dental anesthesia operates on a separate track from hospital-based care—...
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Episode 285
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1:02:20
#284 Safer C-Section Pain Control with Ruth Landau, MD
The fastest way to improve post-cesarean recovery is to start before the first incision—by setting expectations, testing the block, and validating what patients feel. We sit down with Dr. Ruth Landau, Virginia Apgar Professor and Chief of Obste...
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Episode 284
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1:02:44
#283 How To Plan, Induce, And Recover Patients With Anterior Mediastinal Masses Without Triggering Collapse
Anterior mediastinal masses make even seasoned anesthesiologists pause, and for good reason: a stable, upright patient can decompensate with a single change in position or a single dose of the wrong drug. We walk through a clear, stepwise appro...
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Episode 283
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28:38
#282 Building Safer Anesthesia Teams In A Locum-Driven World
Ever walked into a new OR and spent the first ten minutes hunting for an airway bougie or a computer log-in that actually works? We dig into the hidden safety risks of a transient anesthesia workforce and share practical, fast-moving fixes that...
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Episode 282
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14:53
#281 Safer Anesthesia, Everywhere
Imagine stepping into an operating room where oxygen isn’t guaranteed, capnography is rare, and one anesthesiologist might serve a million people. That’s the reality many patients face, and it’s exactly where meaningful change can save the most...
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Episode 281
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28:12
#280 Speak Up To Save Lives
What if the biggest risks in maternal care are not just clinical, but cultural? We dig into the hard truth that speaking up can feel risky, pain during cesarean is often underestimated, and rare obstetric crises can overwhelm memory. From there...
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Episode 280
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23:51
#279 From Birthrooms To Boardrooms: Preventing Trauma And Elevating Maternal Anesthesia Care
Power, control, and communication shape every birth—and too often, they decide whether care feels safe or traumatic. We dig into practical ways to prevent harm in obstetric anesthesia by centering trauma-informed care, reducing stigma around su...
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Episode 279
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21:43
#278 Transforming Maternal Care Through Equity, Science, And Tech
Maternal care is at a breaking point: delivering hospitals are disappearing while deaths that could be prevented keep climbing. We pull back the curtain on how structural racism, policy headwinds, and technology blind spots compound risk for bi...
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16:21
#277 Transforming Maternal Care: Faster Sepsis Recognition, Smarter Hemorrhage Response, and Safer VTE Prevention
Welcome back to our 2025 Stoelting Conference Podcast Series. Fever isn’t the fail-safe it’s made out to be—especially in pregnancy. We walk through the subtle ways maternal sepsis hides in plain sight, why a quarter of those who di...
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Episode 277
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17:07
#276 Maternal Care, Transformed
Maternal safety changes when we stop relying on heroics and start building systems. We open the door to the 2025 APSF Stolting Conference series with a fast, practical tour of what truly reduces morbidity and mortality: collaboration across ane...
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Episode 276
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19:03
#275 Tracheostomy and Laryngectomy Patient Safety: Bedside Signs, Algorithms, and the Discipline that Prevents Catastrophe
A patient rolls into the OR with a tracheostomy—do you maintain the current tube, intubate orally, or go through the stoma? We break down the decision tree that keeps patients safe, from assessing tract maturity and surgical needs to choosing c...
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Episode 275
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16:49