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American College of Surgeons (ACS)
ACS Statements on Principles: The Board of Regents approved a revised Statements on Principles. The revised document is available online and will also be available in pamphlet form.
Statement on Surgical Technology Training and Certification: The Board of Regents approved a statement, developed by the Committee on Perioperative Care, relative to the training and certification of surgical technologists. Accredited programs for surgical technologists vary in length and degree. The statement emphasizes College support of adequate education and training of all surgical technologists.
Scholarships: The American College of Surgeons awards approximately $1.5 million annually in scholarships. At its June 2004 meeting, the Board of Regents approved a new health policy scholarship, fully funded by the College, open to Fellows in general surgery. The Regents also approved three additional cosponsored health policy scholarships: ACS/American Society of Plastic Surgeons Scholarship, ACS/Society for Vascular Surgery Scholarship, and ACS/American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Scholarship. The scholarships will be open to surgeons who are members in good standing of both the College and the respective society sharing sponsorship. These scholarships begin in 2005. For more information on ACS scholarships, please visit the College's Research Scholarships, Fellowships, and Awards page online at
http://www.facs.org/memberservices/research.html.
Web Portal Project: The Regents approved a business plan for the College to develop a Web portal for its members. A Web portal is an electronic information delivery system that allows visitors' ie: ACS members--to personalize their own home pages by telling the portal developer what subject areas they are interested in. It also allows the portal developer to "push" information to its members based on those interests. The main goal of this project is to improve and extend the relationship between the College and its members. The project will unify the various College Web sites into an integrated Web presence and it will allow the College's members to customize what they see when accessing College Web documents, and thus simplify the process for members to access the infor-mation they are seeking online.
ACS Surgical Volunteerism Web Site: The Board of Regents approved funding for the development of an ACS surgical volunteerism Web site as the final element of the "Giving Back" project that the Board approved in 2001. Andrew L. Warshaw, MD, FACS, who was Chair of the Governors' Committee on Socioeconomic Issues at that time, initiated the project as a way of identifying and promoting volunteer programs to which surgeons contribute, as well as to create communication and linkage between those opportunities and surgeons wanting to give something of themselves back to society. In 2002, the committee produced a report outlining the results of a membership survey that it had conducted and in 2003, the committee awarded the first of its Surgical Volunteerism Awards. The awards are given in recognition of individuals who make significant contributions to surgical care through organized volunteer activities. This year, the award will be presented to Theodore J. Dubuque Jr., MD, FACS, a general surgeon from St. Louis, MO, for his international volunteer work in Haiti. The Volunteerism Web site will be developed and directed full-time by Kathleen M. Casey, MD, FACS. The site will operate through the College's Web portal.
Resident and Associate Society: Formerly the Candidate and Associate Society, the Board of Regents approved a name change for the Society to better reflect its constituency. Participation of Residents and Associate Fellows in the activities of the College has grown and changed, resulting in a change in the function of the Society. The Society also revised its Bylaws, which the Board approved. The revised Bylaws best reflect the current needs, practices, and governance of the Society.
Chapter Leadership Conference: In May, the College held a leadership conference in Washington, DC, for its chapter officers and young surgeon representatives. The Division of Advocacy and Health Policy arranged for approximately 100 attendees to visit with their legislators - as part of the chapter visit program -to discuss issues such as medical liability reform, Medicare physician payment, and federal support for trauma systems. Largely as a result of these visits, a majority of both House and Senate members signed "Dear Colleague" letters to the CMS Administrator, seeking relief from the Medicare payment crisis.
ACS Public Profile and Visibility: At its February 2004 meeting, the Board of Regents approved, in concept, a business plan to formalize a process for enhancing the public profile and visibility of the College. The Board also approved an action to create a steering committee to govern the project. At its June meeting, the Board approved the funding for implementation of the program. The goals of the program are twofold: first, to increase public awareness of the role surgeons play in patient care and the role of the College as a patient advocate and, second, to increase College members' and other surgeons' understanding of issues that are of importance to the public and of how to communicate the surgical community's concerns about those issues to the public.
Area Naming Request: The Board of Regents approved a request from the Committee on Development to name a specific area of the College headquarters building to honor a Fellow for his or her philanthropy. The first such resolution is as follows:
Be it resolved, that in recognition of his outstanding career of dedicated service to the profession of surgery, and as an expression of gratitude for his philanthropic support, the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons hereby declares the twenty-sixth floor, north conference room shall hereafter and for all times be known as the Frank T. Padberg, MD, FACS, Conference Room.
Member Benefits: The Job Bank has approximately 350 jobs listed. College members can access the Job Bank through ACS members link on the College's home page: http://www.facs.org
CJC: The Central Judiciary Committee is a Regental committee that has the general supervision and direction of disciplinary matters under the Board of Regents. The CJC consists of five Fellows, three of whom must be Regents. Members of the CJC are appointed by the Board of Regents. The committee has developed and implemented a definitive procedure to handle the complaints that it continues to receive regarding the irresponsible expert witness.
JACS: Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, FACS, became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). The Journal will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2005, and a new five-year contract with the Journal's current publisher will take effect on January 1, 2005. The contract brings with it, the addition of the printing and dissemination of the Bulletin along with the Journal.
The Journal continues to publish all accepted abstracts for the Surgical Forum, which are presented during the Clinical Congress. This year, 247 abstracts were accepted.
As of May 31, 2004, the JACS Online CME = 1 program had logged more than 47,000 CME-1 credits-- at no cost to Fellows of the College. Nearly 7,000 Fellows are now participating in the Web-based program.
AMA House of Delegates: The College has developed a strong presence through its delegation to the AMA House of Delegates. The delegation has been highly successful in passing resolutions addressing policy issues of interest to surgeons, and has significantly increased the participation of surgeon delegates in the Surgical Caucus.
Strategic Planning: The Board of Regents heard reports from the College's Directors of the various ACS areas and divisions on their plans and goals for the next five years. Strategic planning is an important and ongoing process for the Board of Regents.
Ms. Cynthia A. Brown, Director, Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, listed the following opportunities that exist for her division:
Ms. Linn Meyer, Director of Communications, listed programs that are needed in her area:
Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, Director, Division of Education, listed the following potential programs for his area:
Mr. Howard Tanzman, Director, Information Technology, listed the needs in his area:
Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, FACS, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, listed the following goals for JACS:
Paul E. Collicott, MD, FACS, Director, Division of Member Services, outlined the following goals for his division:
R. Scott Jones, MD, FACS, is the Director of the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care. Cancer, Trauma, and the Office of Evidence-based Surgery (OEBS) are housed within this division:
Cancer
Trauma
Office of Evidence-Based Surgery
The Board was asked to evaluate and rank the potential programs and activities that were discussed. The evaluations will be collected, collated, and analyzed, after which, the results will be shared within the College's leadership, and follow-up will occur in October.
American College of Surgeons Professional Association (ACSPA)
A number of programs for medical liability education and advocacy efforts have been conducted under the auspices of the ACSPA. Generally speaking, those programs are aimed directly at Fellows and their patients and are conducted by the ACSPA. Other activities are carried out through Doctors for Medical Liability Reform (DMLR), of which the ACSPA is a member. Some of the ACSPA liability activities are as follows:
Following, are some of the DMLR activities:
The advertisements received considerable attention. In testing the effectiveness of the message points, research indicated refinements that can be made in future ads, and confirmed that the television newsmagazines in particular were quite effective. Plans are underway to raise and dedicate PAC funds from the member organizations to direct toward more politically-focused print advertisements.
So far in the 2003-2004 election cycle, the ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC raised $331,500 through con-tributions from approximately 1,250 members. The PAC Board continues to raise funds through a variety of venues. The telephone education and fund-raising program that began in late April collected $44,000 in pledges in the first two weeks.
Also in the 2003-2004 election cycle, the ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC donated to the election campaigns of 77 candidates, and leadership PACs. The PAC Board of Directors concluded that participating in the 2004 National Party Convention in July and August would be beneficial to surgery. Members of the PAC's President's Circle and ACSPA leaders will have the opportunity to attend the July Democratic National Convention in Boston, MA or the August Republican National convention in New York, NY. The ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC is currently working with three other medical organiza-tions to plan health care events at the conventions.
Online August 3, 2004