About the Site

While on my anesthesia rotations, I was having difficulty remembering some core anesthesia concepts, such as common formulas, drugs, and guidelines. Initially, I purchased a copy of Pocket Anesthesia (fourth edited, edited by Richard Urman and Jesse Ehrenfeld). I think the book is a very useful resource: I actually drew a lot of information from it when building this site. However, one major issue quickly arose: it's another item to carry around. This also means it's another item that can get lost. There are a couple other things I don't like about the book as well. For one, it's paper. If there's a specific topic I'm looking for, I often have to flip through pages, read, and perhaps flip through some more pages, until I find the information I need. The book does have an index, but this doesn't shorten the search time by much. Additionally, much of the information in Pocket Anesthesia isn't cited, for example, drug dosing. Strictly speaking, this isn't a major problem, but sometimes, I like to know where some data/information came from. Finally, Pocket Anesthesia isn't free. At under $100, it won't break the bank. However, for the most up-to-date information, I would need to make another purchase each time a new edition is published.

When designing the site, I wrote out some core features that are aimed at solving the problems I had with my physical copy of Pocket Anesthesia:

• Make it a website. Almost everyone keeps their smartphone either on them or nearby. Additionally, every anesthesia workstation has a computer. As long as someone has a device with internet access, they can access this site.
• Make it easy to find things. Computers are good at searching for information automatically, so the site should have search functionality wherever possible.
• Base all content on evidence, and cite as much as possible. If someone wants a source, they should be able to obtain it.
• Keep it free. I will never paywall the site or accept any sort of financial compensation.
• Keep it updated. No more worring about reading outdated information in a physical book.

Much of the specific site structure and content were my own ideas. I also informally solicited input from faculty attendings, residents, and my peers on what sorts of features/content they would find most useful.

I had little web development experience prior to beginning this project. Although I had a strong programming foundation in general, web development was very different from any programming work I had done previously. Therefore, prior to starting this project, I learned basic web development.

Once I had laid a foundation, I dove into making the site. Right now, it isn't complete, and there are still a lot of planned features. Because I'm still relatively new to web development, my pace in adding new content to the site is slow, but work towards a finished product is proceeding. As an aside, the artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT (by OpenAI) and v0 (by Vercel) have been instrumental in helping me work through more complex code and troubleshoot issues.

For those who are curious about the technical side of things: the website is written using Next.js, which is a React framework. In addition to Next.js, I use shadcn/ui for components (which itself is built upon Radix UI), and I use Tailwind CSS for styling. VSCode is my IDE of choice.

For a month or so, I built and deployed the website on my own server. This quickly became cumbersome as I frequently updated and added to the site, which required a full rebuild and manual redeploy onto my web server (this could sometimes take up to an hour).

As of October 2024, the site is built and deployed on Vercel, which is a cloud platform tailored to websites built using Next.js. Vercel is very cool because almost everything is done automatically, from fetching the source code (from a GitHub repository), to building, to deployment. This drastically reduces the time it takes me to publish updates, additions, and fixes to the site. Vercel also offers a hobby plan (which is completely free), so I'm not incurring any financial expense by using this service. It's a win-win!

I'm still learning web development as I work on the site, so you may notice bugs or glitches. If you discover something that isn't working as expected, don't hesitate to reach out to me (my email is listed at the bottom of this page), and I'll do my best to fix it.

I plan to maintain, update, and add to the site over the next several months. I'm hoping to have a more or less "complete" version of the site by the time I graduate (May 2025). If time permits, I hope to continue to add to the site and keep it updated during my residency training as well.

I have many additional content ideas which haven't yet been added (such as the Drugs List under the Drugs tab), and working on these is my current focus for the site. Additionally, I also plan to add additional features and improve existing features based on suggestions/feedback I receive.

My hope is with this resource, I can help other student like myself and perhaps even residents and attending physicians as well.

I'm always open to suggestions or feedback regarding the site. If you have something in mind, I'd love to hear about it! Shoot me an email: [email protected].