2012 Daily Edition

Today's date: May 20, 2013

Daily Edition

Dr. Pellegrini named next ACS President-Elect

Carlos A. Pellegrini, MD, FACS, FRCSI (Hon), The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair, department of surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, was named President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) during the Annual Business Meeting of Members, which took place Wednesday afternoon at McCormick Place. Dr. Pellegrini has been a Fellow of the College since 1982 and has played a leadership role in the organization, particularly as Chair of the Board of Regents (2010–2011). Read More...

New Regents and Governors selected by College

The Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has elected the following surgeons to the Board of Regents: John L.D. Atkinson, MD, FACS, Rochester, MN; Henri R. Ford, MD, FACS, Los Angeles, CA; Enrique Hernandez, MD, FACS, Philadelphia, PA; L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, Philadelphia, PA; Beth H. Sutton, MD, FACS, Wichita Falls, TX; and Steven D. Wexner, MD, FACS, Weston, FL. Read More...

What surgeons should know before implementing an EMR system

Designed to improve the quality of care, save money, and improve efficiency, electronic medical records (EMR), also known as electronic health records (EHR), are proving to be a source of contention among many health care providers. Tuesday's session, The Brutal Reality: Living with Electronic Medical Records, provided in-depth information on the mandatory use of EMR, barriers to startup and usage, and practical issues. Read More...

Remember to claim your CME credit

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) will not know what sessions you attended unless you tell us—so remember to claim your continuing medical education (CME) credit. Physicians are responsible for claiming CME credit commensurate with their attendance. The deadline to claim CME credit for the 2012 Clinical Congress is March 31, 2013. Read More...

Rural colon cancer patients fare worse than urban counterparts

Colon cancer patients in rural areas are less likely than their urban counterparts to receive an early diagnosis, chemotherapy, or thorough surgical treatment. Rural residents also are more likely to die from colon cancer than urban patients, according to new research findings from surgeons at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The study was presented Wednesday as part of the Owen H. Wangensteen Surgical Forum. Read More...

2013 Southeastern Surgical Congress Annual Scientific Meeting

Mark your calendars. The 2013 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Southeastern Surgical Congress (SESC) will take place February 9–12, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville, FL. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) will sponsor a joint half-day symposium at this prestigious event on Sunday, February 10. Be sure to attend and join in the discussion of issues relevant to the general surgeon, get updates on health care reform, develop new skills, and participate in an open question and answer session. Read More...

ACS patient education website supports efforts to help patients make informed decisions

Patients commonly use the Internet to access health care information. Recognizing the challenge of finding credible resources, and the critical role patients play in their recovery, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) new website www.surgicalpatienteducation.org supports the surgical community with the resources for informed decision making and full patient participation. Our partnership with surgical specialty organizations, key professional associations, and the National Library of Medicine allows the ACS to bring evidence based reviewed materials about specific operations and surgical care. Read More...

2013 Southwestern Surgical Congress Annual Meeting

The 65th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Surgical Congress (SWSC) will be take place March 24-27, 2013, at the Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara, CA. The conference will feature a flexible schedule to allow attendee to maximize their educational opportunities, while leaving plenty of time to network with colleagues. The meeting will feature more than 30 oral scientific abstract presentations, quick shot presentations, videos, invited guest lectures, and an exhibitor showcase. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) will host to a special presentation and will sponsor a joint half-day symposium at this prestigious event on Monday, March 25. Read More...

Wednesday, October 3

What can the health care industry learn from restaurant chains?

"Advanced safety measures have led to an explosion in the number of operations performed in the U.S. alone—at least 50 million annually, with the average American undergoing seven operations in his or her lifetime," said Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, FACS, general and endocrine surgeon and professor of surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. Read More...

Surgeons should join forces in caring for veterans

U.S. Marine SSGT Richard Gonzalez was shot five times and suffered three brain injuries while serving in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, but says the toughest battles he has ever fought occurred after returning to civilian life. One of the biggest obstacles he has had to overcome is dealing with individuals, including health care professionals, who have not served in the military and have limited or no understanding of the hidden conditions that affect him—namely, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Read More...

Disparities in access to surgical care: A complex issue, more solutions needed

The reasons for disparities in access to quality surgical care are complex and have been precipitated by a number of personal and professional factors. That was the message of surgeon panelists who participated in the Monday session, Disparities in Access to Surgical Care, sponsored by the Committee on Diversity Issues. Read More...

Surgeon entrepreneurs navigate rewarding paths

The road to entrepreneurship is undoubtedly filled with challenges. For surgeons, such an endeavor is even more difficult, given time constraints, institutional policies, and federal regulations. Read More...

Surgeons have much to contribute to global health solutions

Peter A. Singer, MD, MPH, FRSC, will share his dedication to delivering medical science and innovation to the world's poor and will encourage surgeons to join the effort when he presents The Grandest Challenge: Global Health. Read More...

TME innovator to recall the unexpected in three decades of bowel cancer surgery

Known as the father of the total mesorectal excision (TME) technique, R. J. Heald, OBE, MChir, FRCS, will bring more than three decades of insight and expertise from his colorectal surgery work in the United Kingdom to his lecture titled 50 Years of Bowel Cancer Surgery: Tales of the Unexpected. Read More...

Preoperative falls associated with worse outcomes in older patients

An answer to the simple question—“Have you recently taken a fall?”—can tell a surgeon how well an older adult may recover from a major operation, according to researchers from the University of Colorado, Denver. The study’s findings were presented Monday as part of the Owen Wangensteen Surgical Forum and indicate that preoperative falls in older surgical patients are a powerful predictor of complications, prolonged hospital stays, and higher rates of disability. Read More...

Surgeons take diverse routes to parenthood

Julie A. Freischlag, MD, FACS, Baltimore, MD, spoke of her personal journey to motherhood during the session, Parenting Beyond Pregnancy: The Challenges of Becoming a Surgeon-Parent. She tried not to "choke up," as she said, when she read to the gathering the college admission essay that her 17-year-old son, Taylor, wrote recently. Read More...

Tuesday, October 2

Martin Memorial Lecture: Regulation stifles surgical innovation

The "proud, proud tradition of innovation in surgery" is threatened by over-vigorous regulation, according to Michael R. Harrison, MD, FACS, professor emeritus of surgery, pediatric, obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Harrison, who holds patents for more than a dozen pediatric surgery devices and founded the Fetal Treatment Center at UCSF, delivered the Martin Memorial Lecture titled Surgical Innovation vs. Regulation on Monday, immediately after the Opening Ceremony. Read More...

Dr. Sheldon honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

The second Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) was presented to George F. Sheldon, MD, FACS, during the Convocation ceremonies on Sunday evening. Dr. Sheldon is the Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a Past-President of the ACS. Read More...

Presidential Address: The next hundred years

There are serious challenges ahead in this new century and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) needs its young, diverse leadership at every level," A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, newly installed ACS President, told the College's 1,377 Initiates during the Convocation Sunday evening at McCormick Place West. Read More...

B/G proposes to expand its role through alignment with ACS divisions

A joint session of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Board of Regents (B/R) and the Board of Governors (B/G) convened Sunday to discuss a proposal to restructure the B/G to "establish a clear identity" for the B/G and to ensure "alignment and interaction with other ACS committees." Read More...

Celebrate the Centennial with a tour of the College headquarters and Archives

Take advantage of your time in Chicago, IL, to tour the American College of Surgeons (ACS) headquarters at 633 N. St. Clair Street. The tour, which features a trip through the ACS Archives, will take place at 11:00 am on Wednesday. Preregistration is required, and sign-up sheets are available in the Archives section of the Member Services Booth in the ACS Resource Center located on the Third Floor of McCormick Place West. Read More...

ACS Case Log evolving into the ACS Surgeon Specific Registry

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Case Log is a user-friendly, web-based data entry system that many surgeons use to keep track of their cases and outcomes. Users are also able to confidentially benchmark their own surgical outcomes against the national aggregate data. Building on the foundation of practice-based learning principles, surgeons can self-monitor their procedure-specific outcomes and identify areas for improvement and continuing education. Since its launch in September 2005, more than 4,000 surgeons have entered more than 3 million cases into the Case Log. Read More...

Churchill Lecture: Surgery’s progression a predictor for field’s next phase

In a lecture titled The Mass Production of Surgical Care, Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, FACS, will explore what the increasing number of operations performed in the U.S. and throughout the world means for the surgical profession, as well as current trends and possibilities for the future. “Surgery is an enterprise that came from nothing to now being an integral part of living a long and healthy life,” Dr. Gawande said. “The fascinating question to me is, ‘How have we come to be a country that does upwards of 50 million operations a year and a world that does more than 250 million operations annually?’” Read More...

Chinese edition of JACS to launch in November 2012

As a result of international collaboration between the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS) and Chinese surgeons over the past two years, Timothy Eberlein, MD, FACS, the Editor-in-Chief of JACS, has secured an agreement with the publisher, Elsevier Science, Inc., to publish a new quarterly Chinese-language edition of the journal. The Chinese edition of JACS will be distributed across China, and an electronic version will be hosted on Elsevier's Chinese website. The Chinese edition will consist of translations of selected articles from JACS and a brief preface and commentary by the new Editor of the Chinese edition, Yupei Zhao, MD, FACS(Hon) of Beijing. Read More...

Sunday/Monday, September 30/October 1

A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, to be installed as 93rd ACS President at Convocation

A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, a general, vascular, and trauma surgeon from San Diego, CA, will be installed as the 93rd President of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) during Convocation ceremonies Sunday evening. The Convocation will take place at 6:00 pm in McCormick Place West, W375 D-E. Dr. Eastman is corporate senior vice president and chief medical officer of Scripps Health, the N. Paul Whittier Endowed Chair of Trauma at Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, and a clinical professor of surgery-trauma at the University of California, San Diego. Read More...

Jack W. McAninch, MD, FACS, FRCS (Eng) (Hon), to receive 2012 Distinguished Service Award

Jack W. McAninch, MD, FACS, FRCS (Eng) (Hon), of San Francisco, CA, will receive the American College of Surgeons (ACS) 2012 Distinguished Service Award, the College's highest honor, during the Convocation ceremonies Sunday evening. The Board of Regents named Dr. McAninch the recipient of this year's award based on his "steadfast and inspirational commitment to the initiatives and principles embodied by the American College of Surgeons," his work as a surgeon and leader, and his dedication to educating students and surgeons. Read More...

Dr. Murray F. Brennan to receive Distinguished Philanthropist Award at FLS Luncheon

The Fellows Leadership Society (FLS) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Foundation will present the 2012 Distinguished Philanthropist Award to Murray F. Brennan, MD, FACS, during the 24th annual FLS benefactor recognition luncheon. The event will take place Monday at the Mid-America Club, 200 E. Randolph Drive, starting with a reception for all current FLS members and honorees at 11:15 am, followed by lunch at noon. Read More...

Five prominent surgeons accorded Honorary Fellowship in the ACS

Honorary Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) will be awarded to five prominent surgeons from Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, England, and Belgium during Convocation ceremonies on Sunday evening. The granting of Honorary Fellowship is one of the highlights of the Clinical Congress. Read More...

Centennial celebration

The American College of Surgeons has planned a number of events and activities to ring in the yearlong celebration of the College's 100th anniversary. Read More...

OGB highlights at the Clinical Congress

Operation Giving Back (OGB)—which the American College of Surgeons established to recognize, connect, support, enable, and celebrate surgeons committed to humanitarian outreach—invites Clinical Congress attendees to participate in a range of programs on surgical humanitarian outreach and global surgery that will be presented this year. Read More...

ACS NSQIP® partners with CMS on Hospital Compare

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) recently partnered with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow hospitals that participate in the College's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) the opportunity to report surgical outcomes to Hospital Compare. Hospital Compare is the CMS website—www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov—that provides quality information to health care consumers.
Read More...

Advanced Trauma Life Support® Ninth Edition now available

The Advanced Trauma Life Support Committee is proud to announce the official release of the Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®) Ninth Edition as the American College of Surgeons (ACS) kicks off its yearlong Centennial celebration. Through its enhanced presentation of quality educational content, this version of the course manual exhibits the ACS' tireless commitment to improving the care of surgical patients over the course of the last 100 years. Read More...