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Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
ACS
Educational Programs

ACS Simulation in Surgical Education

November 19–22, 2025 | Washington Duke Inn/Surgical Education and Activities Lab (SEAL) - Durham, NC

ACS Simulation in Surgical Education

Course Overview

The American College of Surgeons Division of Education, in collaboration with Course Director, Ranjan Sudan, MD, FACS, will host the third ACS Simulation in Surgical Education (ACS SISE) Course—a 4-day, train-the-trainer program designed for surgeons across all levels and specialties. The course emphasizes evidence-based teaching strategies, effective feedback methods, and assessment techniques.

Participants will engage in hands-on experience within a simulation-based setting, with a strong emphasis on teaching medical students and residents in the following areas: 

  • Feedback Methods: including pre-briefing, observation, and debriefing
  • Peer Feedback: strategies for giving and receiving feedback among colleagues
  • Assessment Tools
  • Curriculum Development and Instruction: designing and delivering effective educational content

The course was developed in response to growing interest in simulation-based training, especially with advancements in laparoscopic, endoscopic, and robotic surgery. As simulation centers evolve, trained faculty are essential for teaching these technologies. The impact of the course extends beyond participants, as they can influence teaching and curriculum development at their institutions. This year, based on feedback, the course will offer learning activities in roundtable discussions in the following areas:

  • Simulation Center Management
  • Building Skills Models: Doing More With a Small Budget
  • Equipment Management
  • Theoretical Foundation of Simulation
Intended Audience

Many simulation centers find it challenging to secure expert faculty who are able and willing to teach using simulation. This course is designed for surgical faculty who are currently involved or interested in becoming involved in teaching and assessing the skills of residents and medical students. It is particularly well-suited for surgeons with no prior experience in simulation, as well as those transitioning away from clinical practice, nearing retirement, or already retired and wish to engage in surgical education and mentorship. The training will emphasize fundamental surgical skills that are applicable across all surgical specialties.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

  • Describe the fundamentals of surgical simulation
  • Identify simulation resources for competency-based training and assessment
  • Use simulation to teach and assess technical skills of medical students
  • How to effectively provide feedback and debrief

Course Fee

The fee for the course is $2,890 and covers tuition, all course materials, transportation to the simulation center, all meals, and break refreshments. Additional details will be enclosed with the letters of notification.


Application Information

Register Now

Note: To complete your registration for the course and secure your spot, please submit your application along with the FULL payment of $2,890.

Accreditation

The American College of Surgeons is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Information

AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for this course have not yet been finalized.


Contact

For additional information, contact Krashina S. Hudson, MS, Senior Administrator, Resident and Medical Student Curricula, at khudson@facs.org, Stephanie Hermes, Senior Administrator, at shermes@facs.org, or Michelle R. Armstrong, MAEd, MA, Senior Manager, Programs to Enhance Resident and Medical Student at marmstrong@facs.org

What Surgeons Are Saying

  • “Excellent experience! Very much appreciate the skills gained and the chance to contribute to surgical education, as well as the chance to meet course participants.”
  • “Stimulating and challenging experience.”
  • “Wonderful course. Very well organized. Great course education about the range of using different types of simulators. It was wonderful getting to have students to teach in the simulation lab.”
  • “Very rewarding course!”
  • “This was quite clearly one of the best meetings I have attended.”
  • “Comradery was very valuable; informality was welcomed, good mix of didactics and social.”

Course Faculty

Ranjan Sudan, MD, MBBS, FACS | Course Chair

Dr. Sudan is a professor of surgery and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC. He is past vice-chair and past director of the Surgical Education and Activities Lab (SEAL) at Duke University for thirteen years. His interests include curriculum development and implementation. Clinical areas of expertise include robotic surgery, minimally invasive foregut, bariatric surgery, and curriculum development and implementation. He is also the Course Director and Project Lead of the Integrated National Curriculum in Surgical Education (INCISE), an American College of Surgeons product. Dr. Sudan is the past President of the Association for Surgical Education.

Robert Acton, MD, FACS

Dr. Robert Acton is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. He is trained as a pediatric surgeon with a strong interest in surgical education and simulation to acquire technical skills for medical students and residents. He is an active member of the American College of Surgeons, the Association for Surgical Education, and the American Pediatric Surgical Association. He has served in many leadership roles at the University of Minnesota, including clerkship director, associate program director in surgery, and chief of staff of the University of Minnesota Medical Center. He is currently the Surgeon-in-Chief of the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. Dr. Acton has been involved in developing and refining the ACS/ASE Medical Student Simulation-based Surgical Skills Curriculum since its inception.

Andre Campbell, MD, FACS, FACP, FCCM, MAMSE

Dr. Campbell is a professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. In addition, he is also an attending trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Dr. Campbell is fully trained in internal medicine, general surgery, and surgical critical care. His research and clinical interest have been the ICU care of trauma patients, acute lung injury after trauma, abdominal compartment syndrome, and surgical education. He was selected to serve on the Verification Review Committee of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and has served on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons Executive Committee. Dr. Campbell is the current president of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons.

Krystle Campbell, DHA, MSMS, CHSE, FACHDM

Dr. Campbell is the Director of Simulation Center Operations at the UT Southwestern Simulation Center, Dallas, Texas. She designs and implements cutting-edge simulation learning experiences. As a tutor in the University of Edinburg's Master of Patient Safety program, Dr. Campbell provides tutelage to learners internationally on the effective adoption of simulation to improve patient care. She is Chair of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare External Relations Committee and is affiliated with esteemed bodies such as the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Healthcare Executives. She has a Certificate in Healthcare Education and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Data and Management. Dr. Campbell has distinguished herself as one of fewer than 50 globally with a master's degree in medical and healthcare simulation. Her laurels include graduating with first honors from the Medical University of South Carolina's Doctor of Health Program.

Daniel J. Scott, MD, FACS

Dr. Scott is Assistant Dean of Simulation and Student Integration and holds the Frank H. Kidd Jr., M.D., Distinguished Professorship in Surgery. He practices as a general surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery. He has served as the director of a multi-department simulation program, Vice Chair of Education, and Residency Program Director in the Department of Surgery, and is currently Program Director of the Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery Fellowship. In 2016, Dr. Scott became Director of the UT Southwestern Simulation Center, which hosts events for all departments and has over 25,000 annual learner encounters. Dr. Scott is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in medical education and has authored 225 publications, including landmark studies in surgical simulation. He has also served in numerous national leadership roles, including President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), the Fellowship Council, and the Association for Surgical Education (ASE).

Staff Consultants

Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, MAMSE
Senior Vice President, ACS Division of Education

Patrice Gabler Blair, DrPH, MPH
Associate Vice President, ACS Division of Education

Michelle R. Armstrong, MAEd, MA
Senior Manager, ACS Division of Education
Programs to Enhance Resident and Medical Student Education

Stephanie Hermes
Senior Administrator, ACS Division of Education
Fundamentals of Surgery Curriculum

Krashina S. Hudson, MS
Senior Administrator, ACS Division of Education
Resident and Medical Student Curricula