Named Lecturers

Monday, October 12, 2009
NL01—8:30–9:30 am
Opening Ceremony/Martin Memorial Lecture
“Reengineering systems of care—surgical leadership”
Sponsored by the American Urological Association

Lecturer: Glenn D. Steele Jr., MD, FACS, Danville, PA

Dr. Steele is president and chief executive officer of Geisinger Health System. He previously served as dean of the biological sciences division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and as vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago, as well as the Richard T. Crane Professor in the department of surgery. His laboratory investigations have focused on the cell biology of gastrointestinal cancer and precancer.

Dr. Steele received his bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University and his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in surgery at the University of Colorado, where he was also a fellow of the American Cancer Society. He earned his doctorate degree in microbiology at Lund University in Sweden.

Widely recognized for his investigations into the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancer and colorectal cancer surgery, Dr. Steele is past chairman and examiner of the American Board of Surgery and past president of the Society of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Steele was also chair of the American Hospital Association Systems governing council and a member of its hospital/medical staff committee; he now serves on its long-range policy committee. He currently serves as honorary chair of the Pennsylvania March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign.

Dr. Steele is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (and serves on its committee on reviewing evidence to identify highly effective clinical services), the New England Surgical Society, the Healthcare Executives Network, the Alliance for Advancing Non-profit Health Care, the Commonwealth Fund commission on a high performance health system, the National Committee for Quality Assurance committee on performance measurement, the American Surgical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Moreover, Dr. Steele serves on the editorial boards of numerous prominent medical journals. A prolific writer, he is the author or coauthor of more than 460 scientific and professional articles.

The Martin Memorial Lecture was established in 1946 to honor Franklin H. Martin, MD, FACS, founder of the College, and his wife, Isabelle Hollister Martin.

NL02—9:45–10:45 am
John H. Gibbon Jr., Lecture
“Intraoperative myocardial protection: Still important?”
Sponsored by the ACS Advisory Council for Cardiothoracic Surgery

Lecturer: William A. Gay Jr., MD, FACS, Saint Louis, MO

Dr. Gay is an emeritus professor of surgery in the cardiac surgery section of the division of cardiothoracic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. He retired from clinical practice in 2000.

Dr. Gay received his medical degree from Duke University in 1961. After completing two years of his surgical residency at Duke University Medical Center, he spent two years at the Clinic of Surgery, National Heart Institute (now the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute), as a clinical associate. He then returned to Duke, where he completed his residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery, culminating in a year as a teaching scholar in cardiothoracic surgery (1970-71). He was certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in 1971.

Dr. Gay has served as director of the American Board of Surgery (1989-95) and as director (1988-93), vice chairman (1993-95), chairman (1995-97), and executive director (2003-2008) of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

The John H. Gibbon Jr., Lecture was first delivered in 1971 to honor this pioneer of open-heart surgery.

NL03—2:30–3:30 pm
Charles G. Drake History of Surgery Lecture
“Surgery for congenital heart disease: Past and present”
Sponsored by the Advisory Council for Neurological Surgery

Lecturer: John E. Connolly, MD, FACS, Orange, CA

Dr. Connolly is professor emeritus of surgery at the University of California Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine. Specializing in cardiovascular surgery, Dr. Connolly joined the medical school in 1965 as the founding chair of the department of surgery and continued as professor of surgery for 42 years. In 1999, his patients and former residents endowed the John E. Connolly Chair of Surgery, which is designated for the chair of the department of surgery at UCI.

Dr. Connolly has a long history of service to the medical community. In 2007, Dr. Connolly was appointed to a four-year term on the board of regents of the National Library of Medicine. He has previously served on the advisory council for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1981-85) and on the board of regents for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (1992-2003).

The author of hundreds of medical papers, Dr. Connolly is also the recipient of several awards, including honorary fellowships in the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; he also holds an honorary membership in the Japanese Surgical Society.

He received both his bachelor and medical degrees from Harvard University in 1945 and 1948, respectively.

The Charles G. Drake History of Surgery Lecture was first delivered in 1992 to explore the historical development of surgery.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
NL04—10:00–11:00 am
Excelsior Surgical Society Edward D. Churchill Lecture
“The surgeon shortage: Constructive participation during health reform”
Sponsored by the ACS Advisory Council for General Surgery

Lecturer: George F. Sheldon, MD, FACS, Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Sheldon is a member of the faculty council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the faculty assembly of the University of North Carolina system. He currently also holds the positions of Editor-in-Chief of e-FACS.org, the Web portal of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), as well as Director of the ACS Health Policy Research Institute.

A graduate of the Kansas University School of Medicine, Dr. Sheldon was fellow in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, resident in surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and fellow in surgical biology at Harvard Medical School. He was professor of surgery and chief of the trauma service at the University of California-San Francisco prior to becoming the Zack D. Owens Professor and Chairman (1984-2001) of the department of surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Sheldon is one of fewer than twenty surgeons in the past one hundred years to be president of all of the major surgical organizations, including President of the American College of Surgeons, president of the American Surgical Association, president of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and Chair of the American Board of Surgery. He is the first surgeon, not a dean, to be chairman of the Association of American Medical Colleges since 1879.

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and was a Charter Member of the Council on Graduate Medical Education when it was founded in 1985 under the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Sheldon holds honorary fellowships in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the European Surgical Association, the British Columbia Surgical Association, Colombian Surgical Association, and the Society of Black Academic Surgeons.

In 2000, he received the Kansas University School of Medicine Distinguished Alumna Award. In 2001, he was recognized by the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, as Honored Surgeon. In 2001, he was awarded the University of North Carolina Medical Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty Award. In 2003, he was named a Distinguished Service Member by the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2008, he was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Kansas.

The Excelsior Surgical Society Lecture is named for the Excelsior Surgical Society, a group of 80 medical officers who met for the first time in 1945 at the Excelsior Hotel, Rome, Italy. It also honors Col. Edward D. Churchill, who presented the first keynote address of this meeting.

NL05—11:30 am–12:15 pm
Scudder Oration on Trauma
“Wherever the dart lands: Toward the ideal trauma system”
Sponsored by the ACS Committee on Trauma
Lecturer: A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, San Diego, CA
A long-established advocate and leader on the issue of trauma and emergency surgical care, Dr. Eastman serves as chief medical officer and corporate senior vice president for Scripps Health and N. Paul Whittier Chair of Trauma for Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

Dr. Eastman serves as the chief liaison between Scripps Health and its 2,600 affiliated physicians, ensuring open communication between Scripps’ administrators and clinical professionals. He is also the sole physician on Scripps’ executive committee, where he provides clinical expertise on system-wide issues ranging from new technology to strategic planning. In addition, Dr. Eastman oversees clinical quality, graduate medical education programs, disaster preparedness, clinical research, and other key issues across the Scripps system.

Dr. Eastman received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, where he completed his general surgery residency and served as chief surgical resident. He also completed a year of surgical training at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Norwich, England. He began his career with Scripps in 1972 in the practice of general, vascular, and trauma surgery.

Both nationally and internationally, Dr. Eastman has played a leadership role in the development of trauma systems (which are regional systems of care for severely injured patients). He is a cofounder of San Diego County’s trauma system, regarded worldwide as a model system. Dr. Eastman has helped develop trauma systems throughout the United States, as well as Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa.

In addition to his current service on the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), Dr. Eastman has held numerous appointments and chairmanships. From 1990 to 1994, he was chairman of the Committee on Trauma. Previous appointments and chairman-ships include the following: trauma systems committee chairman, US Department of Health and Human Services; member, board of directors, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma; and chairman, injury research grant review committee, Centers for Disease Control.

Dr. Eastman has authored or coauthored multiple publications related to trauma. Most recently, he contributed a chapter to the surgical textbook Acute Care Surgery: Principles and Practice. Dr. Eastman also coauthored the 2006 Institute of Medicine report, “The Future of Emergency Care,” and testified before the US Congress on the national crisis in emergency care. Dr. Eastman was part of medical history following Hurricane Katrina, when US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, FACS, asked a Scripps medical unit led by Dr. Eastman and Scripps CEO Chris Van Gorder to staff a temporary clinic in Houston, TX, for hurricane victims. This request marked the first time the federal government asked a private health care organization for long-term support for a nationally organized disaster relief plan.

The Scudder Oration on Trauma evolved from Oration on Fractures (1929) to honor Charles Locke Scudder as a founding member of the College and major contributor to the surgery of trauma.

NL06—2:45–3:45 pm
Olga M. Jonasson Lecture
“Leadership development and mentoring in the age of restricted work hours”
Sponsored by the ACS Women in Surgery Committee

Lecturer: Karin M. Muraszko, MD, FACS, Ann Arbor, MI

Dr. Muraszko is chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan. When she was chosen to head the department in 2005, Dr. Muraszko became the first woman to chair an academic neurosurgery department in the United States. She specializes in pediatric neurosurgery and her research interests include Immunotoxin therapy for brain tumors, the biology of brain tumors, Chiari malformations, craniofacial anomalies, congenital anomalies of the brain and spine, and hydrocephalus.

Dr. Muraszko received her undergraduate degree from Yale University. She then continued to Columbia University in New York where she received her medical degree and completed her residency training in neurological surgery and completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery. Following her training at Columbia, Dr. Muraszko was a researcher at the National Institutes for Health for two years before joining the team at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Muraszko is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons along with several pediatric professional associations.

The Olga M. Jonasson Lecture was established to honor Olga M. Jonasson, MD, FACS, as testimony to leadership and education in surgery and a reflection of the capacity of women to
reach academic pinnacles.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
NL07—9:45–10:45 am
Ethics and Philosophy Lecture
“Can general surgeons and transplant surgeons work together to improve the supply
and ethical standards of living organ donations?”
Sponsored by the Committee on Ethics

Lecturer: Mark Siegler, MD, Chicago, IL

Dr. Siegler is the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, professor in the department of medicine, and the director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. He has practiced general medicine for more than 30 years and is one of the few physicians who combines expertise in medical ethics with an active medical practice.

An honors graduate of Princeton University, he received his medical degree in 1967 from the University of Chicago. He was an intern, a resident, and the chief resident in medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals, followed by a year of advanced training at the Hammersmith-Royal Postgraduate Hospital in London, England.

In 1984, the University of Chicago established the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics (CCME) and appointed Dr. Siegler as its director. Since 1984, the CCME has trained more than 120 physicians and nurses, many of whom now direct programs at leading US and Canadian medical schools.

Dr. Siegler has held many lectureships and visiting professorships in the United States and abroad and has been the recipient of more than 25 federal and foundation research grants. Dr. Siegler has been a fellow of the Hastings Center since 1982. He has been a member of the ethics committees of the American Geriatrics Society and the American College of Physicians and currently serves on the ethics committee of the American College of Surgeons and on the advisory board of the Spanish Bioethics Institute. He is also an elected member of the American Association of Physicians.

In 1996, he was awarded the Premio Chirone Prize for his work in medicine and ethics by the Italian Medical Association and the University of Bologna, the oldest university medical school in Europe. In 1997, he shared the first Italian Medical Quality of Life Award with Professor Rita Montalcini,
a Nobel Prize laureate.

Dr. Siegler has served on numerous editorial boards, chief among them being the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, the Archives of Internal Medicine, Postgraduate Medicine, Bioethics in Practice, the American Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Ethics. A prolific author, Dr. Siegler has written and coauthored more than 150 journal articles, 50 book chapters, five books, and other publications. The latest text he coauthored, Clinical ethics: A practical approach to ethical decisions in clinical medicine, 4th Edition (1998), is widely used by health professionals throughout the country.

The Ethics and Philosophy Lecture was established in 1990 through the generosity of John J. Conley, MD, FACS, to support the exploration of ethical issues in surgery.

NL08—11:30 am–12:30 pm
Commission on Cancer Oncology Lecture
“A community cancer center program: Getting to the next level”
Sponsored by the Commission on Cancer

Lecturer: Nicholas J. Petrelli, MD, FACS, Newark, DE

Dr. Petrelli is the Bank of America medical director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center at the Christiana Care Health Services (CCHS) and professor of surgery at Thomas Jefferson University. He came to CCHS from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute where he was chief of surgery and director of the surgical oncology fellowship program. In his present position, Dr. Petrelli has responsibility for overseeing and developing the Cancer Clinical and Research Program at Christiana Care. He has established the Multi-Disciplinary Disease Site Centers at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer as a first in the state of Delaware.

Dr. Petrelli received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame (pre-professional). After receiving his medical degree from Tulane Medical School, he completed a general surgery residency in San Francisco, followed by a two-year surgical oncology fellowship at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY.

Dr. Petrelli has authored or coauthored over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is the author of 32 book chapters in the field of colorectal cancer.

He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Annals of Surgical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, and Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. In 2001, he was appointed editor of the Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America. He has been a member of several NIH Study Sections in the field of gastrointestinal cancer and is presently chair of the colorectal committee of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Cooperative Group. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including the Society of University Surgeons and the American Surgical Association.

The Commission on Cancer Oncology Lecture was established in 1987 to explore major developments in oncology and to focus on the surgeon’s role in patient care.

Lecturer: Michael T. Longaker, MD, MBA, FACS, Stanford, CA

Dr. Longaker is the director of children’s surgical research in the department of surgery, division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital, as well as the Deane P. and Louise Mitchell professor. Dr. Longaker has the responsibility to develop a children’s surgical research program in the broad areas of developmental biology, epithelial biology and tissue repair, and tissue engineering. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Longaker was the John Marquis Converse Professor of Plastic Surgery and held the positions of director of surgical basic science and director of plastic surgery research at the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at the New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Longaker has a unique understanding of wound healing, fetal wound healing research, developmental biology, and tissue engineering. His extensive research experience includes the cellular and molecular biology of extracellular matrix with specific applications to the differences between fetal and postnatal wound healing; the biology of keloids and hypertrophic scars; and, most recently, the cellular and molecular events that surround distraction osteogenesis with respect to craniofacial development.

Dr. Longaker is the recipient of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Maxillofacial Foundation’s 1999 Dr. Bernd Spiessl Award. Dr. Longaker has received the D. Ralph Millard, MD, Investigator Award as coauthor, has won the Plastic Surgery Education Foundation scholarship contest, and is a James IV traveling fellow. He is a member of the Society of University Surgeons, American Surgical Association, and American Society for Clinical Investigation, and he currently serves as treasurer for the Society of University Surgeons. To date, he has authored or coauthored over 750 publications and has five federal grants to support his research.

Dr. Longaker earned his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a residency in plastic surgery at New York University, and a craniofacial fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. The majority of his research training took place while he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the fetal treatment program under Mike Harrison, MD, FACS, and in the laboratory of Michael Banda, MD in radiobiology, both at UCSF. In December 2003, Dr. Longaker earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California-Berkeley and Columbia University.

The I. S. Ravdin Lecture in the Basic Sciences has been sponsored by the I .S. Ravdin Surgical Society since 1964 to honor I. S. Ravdin, MD, FACS, by promoting the application of the basic sciences to surgery.

NL10—2:30–3:30 pm
Herand Abcarian Lecture
“The little engine that did”
Sponsored by the ACS Advisory Council for Colon and Rectal Surgery

Lecturer: David J. Schoetz Jr., MD, FACS, Burlington, MA

Dr. Schoetz is professor of surgery at University School of Medicine, and Tufts academic dean at the Lahey Clinic, a teaching hospital for the medical school. Dr. Schoetz received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, his postgraduate training in surgery was completed with a residency at Boston University Medical Center, and he completed fellowship training in colorectal surgery at the Lahey Clinic. He has been on the medical school faculty since 1996.

Dr. Schoetz has served as the president of American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and is a former president of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. He has been editor-in-chief of Seminars in Colon and Rectal Surgery and associate editor of the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. The author of more than 140 original articles, reviews, and book chapters, Dr. Schoetz has been a visiting professor at institutions in the United States and around the world and has received multiple teaching awards.

The Herand Abcarian Lecture was established to honor Herand Abcarian, MD, FACS, by addressing issues of relevance to the surgical community at-large and focusing on emerging issues in surgery.

NL11—3:00–4:00 pm
Distinguished Lecture of the International Society of Surgery
“Health care reform in the United Kingdom”
Sponsored by the International Society of Surgery

Lecturer: Ara W. Darzi, MB BCh, FACS, London, United Kingdom

Dr. Darzi holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London and is an honorary consultant at St Mary's Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital. Dr. Darzi is also the parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department of Health, National Health Service, London. Dr. Darzi continues his clinical and academic contribution and is the first minister of health to be an active clinician while in office.

Dr. Darzi and his team are internationally respected for their innovative work in the advancement of minimal invasive surgery and in the development and use of allied technologies, including surgical robots and image-guided surgery. They have been awarded many prizes, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Excellence in Higher and Further Education in recognition of their achieve-ments in pioneering new technologies to address training requirements for surgeons. Dr. Darzi was knighted by the queen for his service to medicine and surgery as a Knight Commander of the most excellent Order of the British Empire in December 2002.

Dr. Darzi actively pursues and relentlessly campaigns for the need for improved interdisciplinary research, which is reflected by his honorary fellowship in the Royal Academy of Engineering; he is also a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Darzi has published more than 500 peer- reviewed articles and seven books.

The Distinguished Lecture of the International Society of Surgery was established in 1990 to honor distinguished international surgeons.