An Interview with Dr. Timur Özelsel

On November 14th, 2022 I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Timur Özelsel to ask him some questions about his team’s research about environmentally friendly anesthesia. Dr. Özelsel has been working as an anesthesiologsit at the University of Alberta Hospital since April 2007. He is a clinical professor at the University of Alberta, Site Chief of Anesthesia at the the Cross Cancer Institute, and director of Quality and Equipment in Anesthesia for the Edmonton Zone. Dr. Özelsel is also a cofounder of the Special Interest Group of Green Anesthesia with the American Society for Regional Anesthesia and a cofounder of the Section for Environmental Sustainability within the Canadian Anesthesia Society, where he currently serves as the Vice-Chair. Before moving to Canada, Dr. Özelsel was an anesthesiologist in Munich, where he completed his medical schooling. The topic of climate change is becoming increasingly relevant as the effects of global warming are felt in irregular weather patterns all over the world that only seem to get worse year by year. I was interested in how Dr. Özelsel became involved in researching green anesthesia and how he feels about the impact his work has on a broader scale. Dr. Özelsel had the following answers to my questions.

What is your favourite thing about living or working in Edmonton?

For living it is the multiculturalism we have experienced ever since landing in Canada. We never felt like immigrants seeking acceptance and very much welcomed to becoming Canadians. Also very important is that Edmonton offers all the amenities of a major city while still retaining the small city feeling. There is also no city anywhere I have visited, that is more family friendly than Edmonton. For work, it is almost like I stepped through a portal into Utopia. The standing of a physician, coupled with the complexity (and thus ongoing challenge) of working in a University Hospital and the fact that I am actually self-employed is unbeatable.

Have you always had a passion for green anesthesia? And if not, at what point did you develop an interest in researching the environmental impacts of anesthesia?

I have always had a passion for the environment and for protecting the world we humans are stewards of. My passion for sustainable anesthesia began around ten years ago when I learned of the dramatic impact and footprint medicine in general and anesthesia in particular carries.

What are the primary goals you and your team seek to accomplish through your research?

We hope to affect and to achieve change through education primarily. Practice changes in anesthesiologists can achieve a minimum of the 30% reduction the Paris Agreement asks for of all. More than that, there is real opportunity to grow as a specialty. 

Do you feel that the research your team is doing is having a lasting impact on the medical field?

We did achieve early success. And the impact we saw there is lasting. Sadly, I also had to learn that not all change can be achieved by education and by relying on common sense or the willingness of people to change for the greater good.

Why is the research you conduct with your team so important to the lives of people outside of the medical profession?

If global healthcare were a country, we’d be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world – after the USA, China, Europe, and India (displacing Russia). So while we try and help people, we are directly contributing to one of the greatest dangers to all life on the planet – the climate crisis. It is like treating the tree to the degree that the forest dies.

You have worked as an anesthesiologist in both Germany and Canada. How do you feel these countries compare with each other through the lens of green anesthesia?

They sadly are both bad. If anything, Canada is doing a better job – simply because here practice is not as regulated as in Germany. Germany has much more bought into the lie that disposable products are necessary for improved patient care.

Currently, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, is in its final week in Egypt. Do you feel that the decisions made by the nations present at the conference will have a significant impact on your work? Why or why not?

No they will not sadly. Medicine is always outside of all government regulations. If we want change in medicine, it is healthcare professionals who must affect this. 

What is the one thing you wish everyone would understand about the climate crisis?

It is the single greatest threat to the health of all living things in the 21st century. And it is an extinction level event – it is very unlikely that humans will just watch all other life die without it including us.