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Report: Young Surgeons Networking Luncheon Leadership Conference, June 4, 2007

Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC

Prepared by Laurel Soot, MD, FACS, Portland, OR

The College’s Committee on Young Surgeons (CYS) is charged with representing the younger members throughout the organizational (and administrative) structure of the College.  To help achieve this mission, the CYS has embarked upon a series of networking activities to meet with the younger members to learn about their concerns and issues.

The first networking activity was held in conjunction with the 2007 Leadership Conference on June 4, in Washington, DC, and this report summarizes the session.

The second Young Surgeons networking opportunity will be held in conjunction with the Clinical Congress on Monday, October 8, 5:00—6:30 PM, at the Hilton Riverside Hotel, in the Breezeway  Room.  All the College’s members who are 45 and younger (excluding Resident and Medical Students) are invited to attend.

In the meantime, we are seeking advice and suggestions for the Young Surgeons Community on the College’s portal (http://efacs.org/portal/page/portal/ACS_Content/ACSCOMMUNITIESSPECIALITIES/YoungCmty).  When you can, please review our Community’s page and send us your suggestions and ideas.   Many thanks for your interest in our Young Surgeons activities.

Yours truly,

Terry L. Buchmiller, MD, FACS, Boston, MA
Chair, Committee on Young Surgeons

Questions for the Networking Session, June 3, 2007

1. Do you have a young surgeons group in your local ACS chapter?

  1. Very few

2. Do you use the ACS Young Surgeons page/ portal?

  1. Few use it
  2. Response: need to increase utilization/awareness

3. What if the CYS gave you tools for a presentation at your local Chapter meeting?

  1. Enthusiastic response: it would be useful to encourage involvement of residents, Associate Fellows, medical students; would increase awareness of the Young Surgeons
  2. Felt that the term “Young Surgeon” is ill-defined; many thought that there was an additional process beyond membership in the ACS that you had to go through to become a “Young Surgeon.”  Poor knowledge of the role of the Committee of Young Surgeons

4. What is the best mechanism to increase awareness of the ACS Young Surgeons?

  1. Email; sometimes doesn’t hit the “radar screen” if it is bulk email from the ACS
    1. May be better received if it came from the personal email of a CYS representative/member
  2. Need to address the specific needs of the Young Surgeon; change the question from “What can you do for the ACS?” to “What can the ACS do for you?”
    1. Increase the awareness of the ACS within the surgical subspecialty groups and why it is important to continue to be an ACS member
    2. Contact the surgical specialties to get names of young surgeons who are not ACS members
  3. Emphasize the “umbrella role” of the ACS
    1. Two groups of individuals
    2. those who seek information
  4. those who wait to be contacted
  5. Have a Young Surgeon Booth at Clinical Congress and surgical specialty national meetings

5. How to encourage ACS membership

  1. Insurance
  2. Investment planning
  3. Continuing medical education
  1. Offer financial incentives as part of membership

6. What is the morale of the young General Surgeon?

  1. Poor; made to feel that “general” is not a specialty and therefore not honorable (the family practice of surgery)
  2. Need to start inspiring at the local level
  3. Used the Metropolitan Washington (DC) Chapter as an example of an outstanding local chapter
  1. They set agendas, have educational events, national speakers and then relate it to both a local and national level
  2. Private surgeons need to be targeted regarding the “hot issues”

7. ACS should focus on what topics?

  1. Those that are not specialist dependent
  1. Advocacy
  2. Education/Recertification
  3. Practice Management
  4. Case Log
    1. Voiced complaints that it was not useful for subspecialists
  6. Quality reporting/ performance standards
  7. Interested in the ACS developing materials that would allow them to give a talk to their local chapter on health care policy and reform

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    Online December 3, 2007

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    by the American College of Surgeons, Chicago, IL 60611-3211
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