Artificial intelligence is reshaping modern anesthesia, and two UNLV fourth-year medical students are helping define that future. Rakshita Giri and Shaik Huma Firdhos (both Medicine) from the Class of 2026 published “Artificial Intelligence in Anesthesia: Enhancing Precision, Safety, and Global Access Through Data-Driven Systems” in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. Thomas A. Vida served as faculty mentor and senior author while the students drove the review.
Giri, who plans to pursue anesthesiology, examined adaptive platforms that track brain activity, blood pressure, heart rate, and other physiologic signals in real time. Firdhos, who plans to enter internal medicine, evaluated how these technologies enhance perioperative and critical care management. Together, they analyzed systems that adjust anesthetic medication with exceptional precision, reduce episodes of low blood pressure, and maintain stable anesthetic depth through closed-loop platforms such as McSleepy. They also assessed how AI lowers clinician workload and improves consistency in complex sedation settings.
Their review highlights key challenges as well. AI raises issues involving bias, transparency, data protection, and unequal access in resource-limited hospitals. The authors call for ethical design, rigorous oversight, and equitable implementation.
Giri and Firdhos show how UNLV medical students can advance their fields before residency. Their work positions UNLV at the front edge of AI-guided perioperative care and demonstrates the impact emerging physicians can achieve through focused, disciplined scholarship.
