June, 2024
Asha Padmanabhan, MD
Hello friends,
I am deeply honored and excited to serve you this year 2024-2025 as your FSA President.
I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you. Some of you already know me, most don’t, and what better way for you to get to know me than through my direct line of contact with you?
My name is Asha Padmanabhan. I have over 20+ years of experience as an anesthesiologist.
My journey in brief:
After completing medical school in India, I trained in the UK as an anesthesiologist for 4 years, before making the move to the US where I did my General Surgery Internship and Anesthesia Residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University in Boston. My first stint as an Attending was at Bayview Johns Hopkins, Baltimore as an academic anesthesiologist for 3 years before I made the move to South Florida and the private practice world.
6 years in Private Practice, the last 3 as a Partner and Treasurer for my group ended when my group lost our contract as was happening to so many practices at the time in South Florida. For the next 10 years, I worked for Sheridan/Envision Physician Services as Chief of Anesthesia at Plantation General Hospital for 5 years followed by Medical Director, Bethesda West for 5 years.
Early this year, I made the bold (and scary!) move to resign from the safe world of employed physician practice and leap into the unknown as a full-time Independent Locum physician. All this to say that I have had experience with all different practice models in the specialty.
I have been involved and deeply committed to the work of the FSA for 10+ years. Like many of you, in the early part of my career, I was not involved with the FSA. To be brutally honest, I had no idea what they did. I was too focused on my career as an anesthesiologist and being a good parent and didn’t think I had the time or energy to do anything else.
My first exposure to the FSA was as an observer at one of the Board meetings during an ASA Annual Meeting when one of my coworkers told me I could attend. I snuck into one, sat in the back, trying to make myself as invisible as possible. That day opened my eyes. Although 99% of what they were talking about sounded like a foreign language to me, I recognized that what they were talking about was important. I saw this small group of very committed individuals who were fighting for me. For my specialty, and for my livelihood, for the income I had assumed someone would pay just because I put in the work. That was when I realized how important it was to advocate for our specialty, for proper reimbursement, for the care team model. All the things I had taken for granted, that were important to maintain my practice and my kids’ and family’s future. That led me to attend more meetings and start getting more involved with the work. I didn’t necessarily have more time and my kids were still young, but I recognized that I couldn’t really pass the buck and expect ‘someone else’ to do the work. I could give a fraction of my time, an hour or so a month, to start working on FSA Committees. And that’s where it all started.
Apart from the FSA, I am also involved with the ASA and serve in several committees. I am the current Chair of the Committee for Women Anesthesiologists.
I am a graduate of the Envision Leadership Academy and the South Florida Physician Leadership Academy.
Outside of my anesthesia career, I am a Certified Physician Coach, a Podcast host, a Keynote Speaker and a writer.
I am also a wife and a mom to two. My son is an attorney and my daughter is a rising college senior. I love to travel with my family and experience new countries and cultures, especially through food. I love to read and write and watch the sunrise on the beach.
Now, I would love to hear from you.
Who are you, where do you practice, what challenges are you facing, what can the FSA do for you?
You can get in touch with me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
I look forward to hearing from you and I look forward to serving you to the best of my capacity this year.
Sincerely,
Asha Padmanabhan, MD FASA
President 2024-2025Florida Society 0f Anesthesiologists
