To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise, “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.”
This is the mission statement of the Department of Veterans Affairs and serves as inspiration to us in the Veterans Affairs Anesthesiology Service Division at Duke. Our purpose is to bring world-class care to those who served. We do this by leveraging both Duke’s and VA’s strengths: world-class scientists and clinicians, cutting-edge perioperative medicine techniques, and extensive population health and implementation science knowledge and experience.
Established in 1978, the Anesthesiology Service at the Durham VA Health Care System (VAHCS) was the fifth in the country to separate from the Surgery Service Line. Under the leadership of Drs. Stanley Weitzner, Philip Lumb, Jake Frieberger, Robert Sladen, and Jonathan Mark, the division grew exponentially and now provides care to patients in the operating room, several off-site locations, and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. We also operate busy pre-anesthesia evaluation and pain clinics, and provide transesophageal echocardiography services for the entire Durham Health Care System. Our group is involved in basic, translational and clinical research, and educates the next generation of leaders in anesthesiology, critical care, pain medicine and perioperative medicine.