To the Editor:
I was disheartened to see the March 2012 cover image of a single gray-haired female featured with the tagline “Addressing Competency and Education in the Aging Anesthesiologist.”
The majority of anesthesiologists has always been and continues to be male. The referenced study by Tessler et al. eliminated gender as a variable. There are no data to suggest female anesthesiologists differ from their male counterparts in quality of care.
Cover art for ANESTHESIOLOGY has been singularly outstanding in recent years, in creativity and clinical pertinence, particularly the molecular schematics. A more appropriate image to reflect this article and accompanying editorial would have been a similar image including a more diverse group of seasoned anesthesiologists (particularly male), or perhaps more of a schematic, less-realistic-looking group.
She could be any of us women, and we neither wish nor deserve to be the isolated standard bearer for this important topic.
