Technology and the growth of anaesthesiology as a specialty.

Clinical monitoring techniques have affected patients, influenced other specialties; and changed the specialty of anaesthesia. Patients now fare better, the progress of surgery has been facilitated, and anaesthesiology itself has felt the impact of these developments. Technological advance stimulates our understanding of physiological processes, which is a foundation for progress yet to come. The complexity and abundance of equipment threatens to overwhelm the modern anaesthesiologist, a problem now being addressed without risk to patients by using simulators in training. By extrapolation from the last 30 years of progress, prospects in the specialty are breathtaking, though much needs to be done, particularly in countries struggling to advance anaesthesiology in the face of severe restrictions in personnel and resources.