Characteristics of anesthesiology residency program directors

The roles and responsibilities of anesthesiology core program directors have evolved, in part because the Anesthesiology Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education no longer requires that the department chair also serve in this role. We reviewed several core anesthesiology program director academic and demographic characteristics including age, academic rank, gender, duration of service, board certification and re-certification status, and whether the program director also serves as department chair. Anesthesiology core residency program directors range in age from 33 to 74 years, with a median of 52 years. Thirty-seven (28%) program directors are women. The majority (67%) have senior academic rank (professor or associate professor). The median appointment duration is 3.7 years. The core residency program director currently also serves as department chair in 24 of the 131 (18.3%) programs.