Non-OR Anesthesia (NORA) Division

The 'New Kid on the Block' in the Department of Anesthesiology is the Division of Non-Operating Room Anesthesia. Traditionally, anesthesiology services have been provided in the safe environs of the hospital operating rooms. However, in recent years there has been a paradigm shift towards more minimally or non-invasive procedures (both therapeutic and diagnostic) being done outside of the OR. Our department has responded by creating a Division that specializes in the care of these patients. We have a group of dedicated faculty who work as part of a multidisciplinary team in tandem with the proceduralists to provide the highest quality patient care and satisfaction outside of the operating rooms. For our anesthesiologists, patient safety undoubtedly takes the top priority!

NORA services are provided at the recently renovated state-of-the-art six-room Interventional Advanced Endoscopy/ Bronchoscopy Suite, two Electrophysiology procedure rooms, a TEE Lab and four Radiology interventional procedure rooms. In addition, we perform services for ECT and Radiation Oncology. The NORA Division is keeping up with the challenge presented by the advances in technology and the increases in the complexity of these interventional procedures. With more than 8,000 procedures performed in the endoscopy center, one of the busiest Electrophysiology services in NY and hundreds of interventional radiology procedures per year, off-site anesthesia services are in high demand and will continue to expand.


Division Members


Tazeen Beg, MD
Chief of Non-OR Anesthesia
           

  • Tazeen Beg, MD is Chief of the Division of Non-OR Anesthesia.
  • Lauren Fleischer, MD has been a member of our department since 1994. She did her residency and fellowship training at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
  • Xiaojun Guo, MD, FASA. Dr. Guo splits his time between the NORA and Regional Anesthesia divisions. His main areas of interest in acupuncture are Influenza prevention and preoperative sedation with acupuncture.
Residency Training
With the recent mandatory introduction of a two week NORA rotation for residents last July, we have introduced an exceptional quality educational curriculum that includes lectures and exposure to a wide variety of cases. Our patient population is diverse. During the course of a day you may be taking care of a healthy ASA 1 patient getting a screening colonoscopy or an ASA 4 patient getting therapeutic tracheal or biliary stent for inoperable obstructive cancers! We certainly have our share of difficult airways and other challenging cases with advanced GI/Pulmonary and interventional cardiology procedures. During this rotation you will learn how to provide safe anesthesia with cultural and operational barriers that exist in such seemingly far off places. And once the residency is over, and your first assignment as a brand new attending is in the EP lab, you will certainly be the one and only confident anesthesiologist who has 'been there, done that'!

Recent Publications
Resident authors denoted by bold type

  • Rubano JA, Jasinski PT, Rutigliano DN, Tassiopoulos AK, Davis JE, Beg T, Poovathoor S, Bergese SD, Ahmad S, Jawa RS, Vosswinkel JA, Talamini MA. Tracheobronchial Slough, a Potential Pathology in Endotracheal Tube Obstruction in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Intensive Care Setting. Ann Surg. 2020 May 20.
  • Beg T. Reflections of an Ambulatory Anesthesiologist from the COVID Front Lines. SAMBA Link Member News I Summer 2020. SAMBA newsletter
  • Beg T. Virtual Meetings are the New Reality.
  • Beg T, Daoud BE, Richman DC. Preoperative optimization of patients undergoing interventional procedures: infrastructure, logistics, and evidence-based medicine. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2021 Aug 1;34(4):482-489.
  • Abola RE, Schwartz J, Beg T, Gan TJ, Forrester J. In Response (A Practical Guide for Anesthesia Providers on the Management of COVID-19 Patients in the Acute Care Hospital). Anesth Analg. 2021 Aug 1;133(2).
Recent Presentations
  • Miles J, Beg T. 93yo Female Presenting For Urgent EGD with 8cm Retrosternal Goiter. PGA 2019
  • Chojnowski R, Kang RS, Guo X. Emergent Intraoperative Tracheal Resection for Anterior Tracheal Mass with Extended Margins. ASA 2020
  • Kang RS, Beg T, Mavarez-Martinez A, Punta C, Bergese SD. Clinical Features of COVID-19 Patients Requiring Endotracheal Tube Exchange. PGA 2020