The Applied Pharmacology and Clinical Anesthesia fellowship is offered at The Ottawa Hospital – Civic campus. The program consists of twelve months of clinical training in pharmacology as it applies to the perioperative setting. Unique in Canada, this fellowship is structured for anesthesiologists with a keen interest in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. It builds on the concept of the anesthesiologist as an expert in perioperative pharmacology. Training will focus on expanding familiarity and comfort with the wide selection of drugs available in Canada. Different anesthetic techniques rooted in physiology and pharmacology will be explored. To gain proficiency, fellows will be exposed to a broad variety of cases and special patient groups e.g. high turnover ambulatory lists, gastric bypass in bariatric patients, and all-day spine surgery in opioid tolerant chronic pain patients.

If the following quote resonates with you then you might enjoy this fellowship:

"Anesthesiologists routinely induce the most fascinating pharmacologic effects in existence, the reversible interference of anesthetics with higher cognitive functions. Understanding how the drugs in our custody exert their effects should be our contribution to mankind's universal knowledge base."
- Perouansky and Pearce.

The Applied Pharmacology and Clinical Anesthesia fellowship aims to:

1. Expand the anesthesiologist's existing base of knowledge in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics with a focus on how to apply multicompartmental models to the maintenance of anesthesia.

2. Illustrate how plasma and effect-site concentration simulation programs add value to teaching and can help guide drug administration in settings where target-controlled infusion pumps are not available. 

3. Discuss mechanisms of consciousness and how anesthetic drugs might interfere with different components of consciousness.

4. Equip the fellow with a set of skills that allows one to administer personalized anesthesia based on individual patient requirements rather than population measures.

5. Demonstrate how this knowledge is clinically relevant to patient satisfaction, safety, and post-anesthetic recovery.

6. Show how purposeful practice can facilitate lifelong reflective learning and help expand one’s skill set as an anesthesiologist.

The fellow will:

1. Gain experience with multimodal maintenance of general anesthesia as a prelude to multimodal pain management on the Acute Pain Service.

2. Become proficient with total intravenous anesthesia in a variety of settings ranging from ambulatory cases to all day surgery.

3. Understand when selective spinal anesthesia techniques are best indicated and become an expert in their use.

4. Be adept at administering anesthesia without neuromuscular blockade. If neuromuscular blockade is deemed necessary, then demonstrate its purposeful and deliberate use.

5. Acquire the knowledge and skills to start and lead a Clinical Pharmacology rotation for an anesthesia residency program.

6. Develop and demonstrate critical appraisal skills with an emphasis on evaluating trial methodology in the context of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.

7. Develop a scholarly project related to applied pharmacology. Scholarly is defined broadly and may be related to knowledge translation, quality improvement or research.

8. Take part in the teaching of residents and present at departmental grand rounds.

9. Become acquainted with strategies to ensure a more environmentally sustainable anesthetic practice.

 For more details about application requirements, please click our Fellowship Application Instructions dropdown on the previous page.

Applied Pharmacology and Clinical Anesthesia Fellowship Lead
Dr. Sanjiv Gupta
[email protected]

Fellowship Program Administrator
Jo-Anne Villeneuve
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
[email protected]