My name is Karen Singh and IÕm a cardiac anesthesiologist. As a cardiac anesthesiologist, I take care of patients with pretty severe cardiopulmonary and vascular disease and we provide anesthesia for them typically for all kinds of thoracic, vascular and open-heart surgery. I think itÕs very interesting to see the physiology, especially cardiac physiology, at work. ItÕs a challenging field; it has a lot of opportunity to do various types of procedures, echocardiography in the case of cardiac anesthesiology. I think UVA offers a lot of cutting edge therapies including the anesthetic that is hard to find at other places, even other academic places. From the choices of the drugs that weÕre using, to the depth of the anesthesia, to how we are preparing patients for extubation in the post-operative period. They should expect to get the best anesthetic. We try to explain the anesthesia as much as we can in the brief time we have to talk, and I try to reassure them that we are going to be with them the entire time during anesthesia. They're going to make sure theyÕre comfortable, they donÕt feel anything theyÕre asleep and make sure they know weÕre watching over them the whole time and caring for them.