ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpstey and Harriet Hopf interview Shahid Ali, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and the Director of Cardiac Anesthesia at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas, about automated anesthesia technologies.

Ali contrasts automated inhaled delivery via end-tidal control (now available in the US) with target-controlled infusions (common outside the US but not FDA-approved), explains anesthesia goals and workflows, and describes how clinicians set age-adjusted MAC targets while the system adjusts vapor concentration and fresh gas flow, including a “purge” function to hasten wake-up.

He highlights safety features that disengage automation when parameters are unsafe, teaching advantages from real-time visualization of flows, MAC, and cost, and sustainability benefits from low-flow automation, citing large reductions in emissions.