Perioperative Medicine: The Value Proposition for Anesthesia?: A UK Perspective on Delivering Value from Anesthesiology.

Perioperative medicine describes the practice of patient centered, multidisciplinary, and integrated medical care of patients from the moment of contemplation of surgery until full recovery. The value proposition for perioperative medicine rests on defining benefits that outweigh the costs of change. This article discusses the concept of value in the context of healthcare and highlights a number of reasons for relative market failure. Five key opportunities for adding value in the perioperative journey are suggested: collaborative decision-making, lifestyle modification before surgery, standardization of in-hospital perioperative care, achieving full recovery after surgery, and the use of data for quality improvement.