VA Health Care System

The Anesthesia Service of the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS) provides exceptional clinical care; educational experiences for anesthesia residents, medical students, and pain fellows; and conducts clinical research and development.

The SFVAHCS Anesthesia Service provides cardiac and non-cardiac operating room care; ICU care; anesthesia for non-operating room care in GI, cardiology, radiology, and psychiatry; acute and chronic pain services; emergency airway management; a comprehensive simulation program for quality improvement; and staff, resident, and student education.

SFVAHCS research programs include big data epidemiology projects on developing and testing the safety and efficacy of medications; machine vision based remote, non-contact monitoring; monitors for depression, pain, and neurocognitive testing; and drug development for PTSD; as well as developing a nationwide quality improvement program for VA anesthesia care, reviewing 500,000 cases per year in 130 facilities.

In 2024, Dr. Julien Cobert had his non-contract, remote machine vision-based pain meter manuscript published. Dr. Art Wallace submitted the AVD-M monitor FDA pre-submission. We continue to develop VA-AnesQIP, our 139-hospital quality improvement (QI) system based on big data techniques.

Art Wallace, MD, PhD 
Chief of Anesthesia, VA Health Care System