New faculty spotlight: Kathryn Crane, MD

Kathryn Crane, MD, is a new faculty member at UNMC. 

Name: Kathryn Crane, MD 

Title and department at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine: Assistant professor, UNMC Department of Anesthesiology, General Anesthesiologist

What drew me to anesthesiology: I came to the game a little late.  I was a general surgery intern on the vascular surgery service, scrubbed into a complex case, when the patient decompensated rapidly and the dreaded overhead page was called.  Every available anesthesiologist arrived within seconds, and what I witnessed as a younger, more impressionable doctor, I now know is the moment anesthesiologists are made for. We are entrusted with those critical moments, but what’s kept me in love with anesthesia every day really happens in pre-op hold before we deliver an anesthetic.  We are present for patients at some of their most vulnerable moments, and it is humbling we have the opportunity to ease their suffering, temper their worry, or to even share a laugh to relieve tension. 

Education: 

Medical School: Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL 

Internship: General Surgery, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD 

Residency: Anesthesiology, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD 

Research/Professional Interests: Ambulatory Anesthesia, Education, Physician Wellbeing 

Three things people may not know about me: 

1. In my life, I’ve had 20 different addresses in 16 cities, in 12 different states. Nebraska is my home and Omaha the community I love. After serving for almost 10 years in the Army, there is nothing like coming home. 

2. I was a general medical officer in the Army for two years between my general surgery internship and starting anesthesia training. I spent one of those years assigned to a Military Police unit whose mission was to guard the United States Disciplinary Barracks and Fort Leavenworth, and my job was to care of inmates at the health clinic in the prison. 

3. I was the world's worst French horn player from fifth through eighth grade but kept with it because my mom “said so.”  I now have three children whom I plan to expose to similar character-building experiences!