The future of anesthesiology is perioperative medicine.

Anesthesiology faces many challenges in the years ahead. To meet these challenges, the author hypothesizes that perioperative medicine, which includes the spectrum of care from preoperative assessment to postoperative care, offers the best chance for the specialty to survive and prosper. The history of perioperative medicine is reviewed and a discussion of how such change will benefit anesthesiology is included. Implementation may be difficult and the author explores how a transition from traditional procedure-focused anesthesiology to a broader based specialty may be accomplished. The special needs of perioperative medicine and how they differ from anesthesiology are also presented.