The guest editors of May’s ASA Monitor, Drs. Brooke Trainer and George Tewfik, discuss practice models with Dr. Zach Deutch. Listen in as they consider the wide array of career paths available to anesthesiologists and weigh competing concerns such as clinical environment decision making, payment, work-life balance, culture, and more. Recorded March 2026.
George Tewfik, MD, MBA, FASA, is an associate professor in anesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School where he serves as the director of quality assurance and clinical informatics for the department of anesthesiology. He serves on the ASA committees for patient safety and education and quality management and departmental administration. His research areas of interest include perioperative efficiency, patient safety, medical education, and medical economics, amongst numerous other topics. He is also a member of the ASA Monitor editorial board. He has lectured at the ASA, at the NJ state society of anesthesia and numerous other institutions regarding such topics as improving the preoperative evaluation and processes for adverse event analysis.
After completing his residency, he spent the first five years of his clinical career in private practice, during which time he got his MBA from Rutgers Business School. He returned to Rutgers New Jersey Medical School seven years ago and became involved in quality, patient safety and residency education. He often shares his expertise regarding employment contracts and advice regarding job searches with his residents, given his experience with a variety of hospitals and practice types. For this reason, amongst many others, he is particularly intrigued by the topic of the ASA Monitor’s September issue regarding the ever-changing employer-employee relationship in anesthesiology.
Brooke E. Trainer, MD, FASA, remains devoted to her fellow Veterans and maintains her full-time status as an anesthesiologist, acute pain physician, and critical care medicine Intensivist at the Central Virginia VA Health Care System in Richmond VA. She is also an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Virginia Commonwealth University where she works as a critical care intensivist in the liver transplant and surgical trauma burn ICU. Most recently, Dr. Trainer was recognized for her contributions and interest in simulation education and was granted a national faculty position with the VHA Simulation Learning Education and Research Network (SimLEARN) Division.
Dr. Trainer received her doctor of medicine from the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, completed her anesthesia residency at Yale New Haven Medical Center in Connecticut, and fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. She is a US Air Force veteran, having served as an anesthesiologist at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and director for the Critical Care Air Transport Teams (CCATT). She deployed in 2012, '13, and '14 to Afghanistan from Germany, flying wounded soldiers safely out of Afghanistan back to Germany, then home to the US. In 2012, she was recognized as the top-level physician of the European Medical Command and was awarded the US Air Force European Clinical Excellence Award. Dr. Trainer also holds several leadership positions in organized medicine, including her current role as the president for the Association of VA Anesthesiologists, and has published numerous book chapters in internationally recognized Anesthesia Textbooks.
Zachary Deutch, MD, FASA, is an attending physician with US Anesthesia Partners-Florida and is a guest editor for The Central Line Podcast. Dr. Deutch serves on the editorial board for the ASA Monitor, and is the author of the bimonthly column "Ask The Expert." Dr. Deutch is also the physician review editor of the ASA Monitor Today, is a member of several ASA Committees, and is an at-large member of the ASA House of Delegates from Florida.
Dr. Deutch is a graduate of Princeton University and The George Washington University School of Medicine. His residency training was done at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, followed by a cardiothoracic anesthesia fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Date of last update: April 13, 2026