The purpose of the anesthesiology interest group is to promote an awareness of the exciting and challenging field of anesthesiology, both as a specialty within the medical system as well as a career choice for students. What is anesthesiology? Anesthesiology is the medical specialty devoted principally to the perioperative care of the patient, including the vital jobs of maintaining patient homeostasis during surgery and alleviating post-operative pain. If you would like to learn more, please come to one of our meetings. Some of these meetings will include workshops to teach important skills, such as airway management (intubation), that are critical areas of knowledge in the field. We are also planning to hold a workshop to introduce AIMS (anesthesia information management system), the new anesthesiology computer interface being instituted at UMMC. We offer a shadowing program which facilitates student interaction with faculty in anesthesiology. Finally, we also help interested students obtain student membership in the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the national organization for professionals in the field.