It would be fun if one of the AA universities set up two year test. Find a hospital willing to do it. Hire the SAME number of CRNAs and AAs, all with equal experience levels, all to be supervised the same way by MDAs. Have the AAs and CRNAs doing the same kind of cases. Have someone with no vested interest doing case reviews and QA on the cases and outcomes. After two years, you will have a pretty good study to "prove" one way or the other if the QUALITY of care is the same or not. (But I bet you would find various people, agencies, hospitals or groups coming up with reasons why you can't do a study like this. To those I would say, "Scared of the outcome?"