Welcome to the 94th Annual Clinical Congress

Dear Colleague,

Premier hands-on learning. Presentation of leading-edge surgical research. Exceptional peer access, and, when requested, mentoring. These are the hallmarks of the American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. For surgeons dedicated to improving the care of the surgical patient and safeguarding standards of care, there is no better learning opportunity. On behalf of the College, I extend our warmest invitation for you to join us in San Francisco October 12-16, 2008, for the 94th Clinical Congress, which will focus on the theme “Leading the Way to Quality, Safety, and Excellence.”

Programs at the Clinical Congress are designed to advance our ongoing quest to achieve the best clinical outcomes for our patients. Regardless of your specialty area, you will find unique programs among our lectures, skills-oriented and didactic postgraduate courses, panel discussions, surgical forum sessions, specialty and multidisciplinary sessions, and video-based education sessions. Attendees this year will be able to obtain special certificates including those enabling recipients to meet requirements for Maintenance of Certification, Maintenance of Licensure, and hospital reprivileging. In addition to advancing quality and innovation in the surgical field for our patients, the College is making significant strides in improving the practice environment for surgeons.

New this year to the Clinical Congress is our meeting-wide implementation of a new “Track” system that includes specific blocks of sessions that will highlight more than 20 different specialty areas in surgery to choose from. This system is a result of a strategic planning process for the Clinical Congress that led to recommendations that were approved by the Board of Regents in February 2008. These recommendations will be phased in over a two-year period. We hope this new system will assist all our Fellows in targeting their areas of focus and interest and will make it easier for them to identify which sessions and courses will fit into their schedules and provide them with optimal learning opportunities. The goal is to keep our Clinical Congress fresh and innovative for another 94 years!

With outstanding educational programming and networking opportunities, the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons is the most important surgical conference of the year. I look forward to seeing you there.

With best wishes,
Josef E. Fischer, MD, FACS
Chair, Board of Regents