About

Allan F. Simpao, MD, MBI, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he serves as the Biomedical Informatics Program Co-Director. His clinical expertise includes pediatric and maternal-fetal anesthesia, ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia and vascular access, and pediatric difficult airway management. His research focuses on pediatric and maternal-fetal anesthesiology, anesthesia informatics and analytics, and clinical decision support systems. Dr. Simpao has contributed to the field through various publications and is involved in advancing anesthesia practices and informatics, particularly in pediatric settings.

Research topics

• Surgery
• Internal medicine
• Anesthesia
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Correction: Patient-Initiated Permanent Deletion of Their Electronic Health Record Data: implications for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Healthcare

  Journal of Medical Systems · 2026-05-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• From Prototype to Production: Three Priorities for Journal of Medical Systems in 2026

  Journal of Medical Systems · 2026-02-10

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Patient-Initiated Permanent Deletion of Their Electronic Health Record Data: implications for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Healthcare

  Journal of Medical Systems · 2026-04-21

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Analysis of Trajectories of Anxiety Behaviors During Induction of Anesthesia in Children With Multiple Encounters: A Secondary Analysis of a Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study

  Pediatric Anesthesia · 2026-05-06

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Preoperative anxiety is a significant stressor for children and is associated with negative postoperative outcomes. Although the incidence of difficult inductions during a single anesthetic encounter is well documented, the longitudinal trajectory of anxiety behaviors in children undergoing repeated anesthesia remains poorly characterized. It is unclear whether repeated inductions lead to habituation (reduced difficult inductions) or sensitization (increased difficult inductions). METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of a large multicenter retrospective observational study involving data from six pediatric hospitals between 2019 and 2022. The cohort consisted of children under 18 years of age. The primary outcome was the trajectory of difficult induction, defined as a Child Induction Behavioral Assessment (CIBA) score of 3. Secondary outcomes included mask acceptance and trends in anxiolytic interventions. We employed mixed effects logistic regression models to analyze anxiety trajectories, adjusting for age, parental presence, and behavioral diagnoses. Lorenz curves were used to assess the concentration of anesthetic burden within the population. RESULTS: The study included 102 017 unique patients, of whom 24 564 (24%) underwent multiple encounters. The prevalence of difficult induction remained stable during the initial visits but decreased significantly after the fifth encounter, with the odds of difficult induction decreasing by at least 30% compared to the index visit. This "learning effect" was setting-dependent: children aged 1-12 years undergoing Nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) demonstrated significant habituation, whereas difficult induction rates in the operating room (OR) remained static regardless of visit frequency. Additionally, high-frequency utilizers in NORA settings exhibited a pragmatic shift in anxiolytic strategy, transitioning from pharmacological premedication to increased incidence of parental presence at induction of anesthesia. CONCLUSIONS: In this secondary analysis, we found that repeated anesthetic exposure did not inherently lead to sensitization. Instead, children-particularly in NORA settings-exhibited habituation, characterized by decreasing anxiety behaviors over time. This divergence suggests that the less hostile physical environment and absence of surgical pain in NORA facilitate desensitization, whereas the OR environment maintains a higher baseline threat level. Clinicians should consider these distinct trajectories and prioritize environmental adaptations or parental involvement for high-frequency patients.

  PublisherDOI

• Harnessing Generative Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Anesthesia: Enhancing Learning, Patient Care, and Family Communication

  Pediatric Anesthesia · 2025-06-24 · 1 citations

  editorial

  Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process: During the preparation of this work, the authors used ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models to draft language for this manuscript. After using these tools, the authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and took full responsibility for the content of the publication. Every word has been reviewed, and every sentence has been edited for clarity and accuracy. Citations were manually retrieved from traditional sources (e.g., PubMed). Allan Simpao is an Associate Editor for Pediatric Anesthesia and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Systems. Otherwise, all authors declare the following: no financial relationships in the previous 3 years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. The authors have nothing to report.

  PublisherDOI

• Population-based incidence of anxiety-related behaviours during induction of general anaesthesia in children and efficacy of anxiolytic interventions: an international multicentre retrospective observational study

  BJA Open · 2025-05-09 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction: Preoperative anxiety in children is a significant challenge for anaesthesiologists. Although various pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions have been explored to reduce preoperative anxiety, comprehensive data on the incidence of anxiety and the efficacy of these interventions are lacking. This study aimed to determine the incidence of anxiety in children during anaesthesia induction and evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions using real-world data. Methods: We conducted an international, multicentre, retrospective study, including patients under 18 yr undergoing general anaesthesia. Difficult inductions and anxiety were assessed using the Child Induction Behavioural Assessment tool and the Mask Acceptance Scale. Results: <0.001). 77.8% (121 084) of children did not exhibit anxiety during induction of anaesthesia; half of these required no interventions. Conclusions: Most children manage without interventions, showing a lower incidence of anxiety behaviours than previously reported. This underscores the need for tailored, evidence-based strategies to address preoperative anxiety, particularly among younger children at greatest risk.

  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing Education: Opportunities and Challenges of LLMs in Anesthesiology

  ASA Monitor · 2025-10-23

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Right Team for the Job: Dynamic, Data‐Driven Acuity Scoring in Pediatric Perioperative Care

  Pediatric Anesthesia · 2025-04-19

  editorialOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Emerging Technology and the Future of Perioperative Care: Perspectives and Recommendations From the 2023 Stoelting Conference of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation

  Anesthesia & Analgesia · 2025-05-07 · 6 citations

  review

  Anesthesiology has a longstanding commitment to patient safety, characterized by innovative research, quality improvement, multidisciplinary collaboration, and engineering-based approaches to care systems. The field has been instrumental in advancing technological developments across the perioperative continuum, contributing to the ongoing mission of harm reduction and risk mitigation. However, modern challenges in health care, including increasingly complex patient conditions, workforce shortages, burnout, and the overwhelming volume of health data generated, have created a more urgent and multifaceted landscape for patient safety efforts. Furthermore, with the expanding perioperative continuum, from prehabilitation to postoperative acute care at home, anesthesiology teams must now adapt to a broader role in patient care. To continue enhancing patient safety, anesthesiology must integrate emerging technologies into clinical workflows, scaling their presence and effectiveness. The 2023 Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Stoelting Conference highlighted the necessity for anesthesiology to embrace these innovations while recognizing the challenges they pose. Three key technological domains were emphasized: wearables and the Internet of Medical Things; big data and artificial intelligence; and clinical decision support systems coupled with advanced alarm systems. These technologies offer opportunities to improve patient safety but require careful integration into clinical practice. This report explores the potential of these technologies to reshape anesthesiology and perioperative care while focusing on their application across 4 key phases: the preanesthesia phase at home; the intraoperative phase within health systems; postanesthesia recovery; and recovery at home. By leveraging these technologies, anesthesiology can enhance decision-making, improve outcomes, and continue advancing the mission of patient safety in a rapidly evolving health care landscape.

  PublisherDOI

• Sharing Anesthetic Records with Patients: An Opportunity to Embrace Transparency

  Anesthesiology · 2025-04-08

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jorge A. Gálvez

  Children's Hospital & Medical Center

  140 shared

• Mohamed A. Rehman

  Johns Hopkins University

  104 shared

• Jonathan M. Tan

  Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

  59 shared

• Olivia Nelson

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  58 shared

• Luis Ahumada

  Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital

  38 shared

• Fuchiang Tsui

  University of Pennsylvania

  34 shared

• Lezhou Wu

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  32 shared

• Clyde Matava

  Hospital for Sick Children

  32 shared

Education

• B.A., Biology, Psychology

  Johns Hopkins University

  1998

• B.S., Computer and Information Sciences

  University of Delaware

  2003

• M.D.

  Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University

  2007

• Other

  Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine

  2015