Anesthesia is a branch of medicine that deals with the study and practice of anesthetic medicines that are used to create a temporary effect of loss in sensations and numbing in order to complete medical procedures. Anesthesia could be a relief from pain, a form of temporary paralysis, or in some cases a complete loss of consciousness in a controlled environment. The field is a one that demands a large number of trained professionals and hence the scope for career opportunities as an anesthetic technician are plenty. The job is required in various forms of the medical community ranging from minor to major Surgeries (operating room technicians) to healthcare facilities to the budding field of pain management studies. Recent research prospects involve the study of methods and techniques to incorporate in order to reduce postoperative complications to a minimum. The development of inhalation anesthesia and the possible development of various palliative medicines and devices for critically ill patients are also other ongoing developments.

Diploma in Anesthesia is a two-year course that gives the student a hands-on education on the techniques and procedures undertaken for anesthesia in surgical and non-surgical patients and to develop a strategy that brings out a painless and safe procedure. This course would also help the student gain an understanding of the impacts and complications that the usage of anesthesia would bring to the human body and how to involve a best-case scenario by weighing in the extent of the condition and the methods for recovery, thereby regulating the amount of dosage. A person undertaking the course would be subjected to various learning techniques that would lead to their involvement in operating rooms, critical patient care, post-operative pain management, chronic pain management, palliative care, and other fields that would require an anesthetic technician. The curriculum ideally in the first year would deal with certain basic aspects of medicine such as human physiology and anatomy, introduction to anesthesia, metabolic response to trauma and stress, biochemistry, defensive anesthesia, and pharmacology. The second-year, however, would deal on a more aggressive and intensive study on the facilitation of computers in anesthesia, cardiovascular pharmacology (which is known to be one of the largest complications in anesthetic medicine), anesthetic techniques, geriatric or pediatric anesthesia, anesthetic postures, third world anesthesia (to have an understanding of the possibility of the need for anesthesia in patients in unfavorable conditions and environments such as battlefield surgery), chronic pain therapy and neonatal resuscitation. There are several teaching hospitals in the country that deal with the study of the same and certain employment opportunities such as government and private hospitals, dental clinics, etc.

The course in most cases is pursued as an undergraduate study that would require basic senior secondary school qualification (10+2), with an aggregate of 50% in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Biology. It can also be pursued as a postgraduate study after students finish their MBBS and would like to involve themselves in this field. The course spans a duration of 2 years. The future prospects of this course would lead to entering the world of surgical medicine, and research aspects, where various methods of anesthesiology are being researched.