Thank you for Attending!
Over 300 surgeons, simulation center directors, residents, medical students, allied health providers, and anesthesiologists from 17 countries convened in Chicago, Illinois, March 14-15 to attend this year’s ACS Surgical Simulation Summit, the premiere meeting on surgical simulation. To accommodate such a multidisciplinary audience, the meeting was planned in a way to engage all attendees, encourage diverse perspectives, and foster a collaborative environment.
The Summit kicked off with the annual update on the ACS-AEI Consortium, followed by the Keynote Address, “From Simulation to Battlefield Medicine: The Power of Measurement to Improve Performance and Clinical Outcomes” by Eric Elster, MD, FACS, FRCS Eng (Hon), CAPT, MC, USN (Ret), professor of surgery, professor of molecular and cell biology, and dean of the School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University.
In addition to the ACS-AEI Fellows who presented their in-progress research, twelve cutting-edge scientific papers and forty-six posters were presented. Special recognition goes to Mishal Gillani, MD from Emory University for winning the “Best in Show Award” for her original paper titled, “Objective Performance Indicators Facilitate Step-Specific Skill Assessment in Robotic Right Colectomy.”
Several ACS-AEI Committees organized workshops related to faculty development, learner engagement, and DIY model-building that gave attendees tangible takeaways to implement at their simulation centers. Volunteer leadership from the ACS Division of Education presented new opportunities for accredited Education Institutes (AEIs) related to training surgeons to assist in teaching and assessing the skills of medical students, participating in the Surgical Educator Training program, and hosting an ACS Regional Skills Course.
The MORE (Management, Operations, Research, and Education) track included two engaging sessions this year. Thursday’s session featured successful case studies related to streamlining and realigning simulation program management and operations, and Friday’s session focused on how to utilize a curriculum workbook to yield more effective and impactful simulation-based trainings. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) were offered for the first time this year to give participants the opportunity to meet with individuals in similar roles to dialog on topics of importance, share resources, and make beneficial connections. Additionally, international attendees were invited to have lunch together on Friday to foster camaraderie among this important part of our simulation community.
Once again, we partnered with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) to offer a collaborative session. This year’s session featured podium and poster presentations from the winners of the ACS/ASA Joint Quality and Safety Challenge, which emphasized the advantages of collaborative planning among anesthesiologists, surgeons, and quality, safety, and risk management officers when developing simulations in healthcare settings. Afterwards, a panel of experts consisting of Amy Lu, MD, MPH, chief quality officer and vice-president, UCSF Health; Brian Stein, MD, MS, chief quality officer at Rush University Medical Center; and Kevin Weiss, MD, MPH, chief sponsoring institutions and clinical learning environments officer at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) explored the successes and challenges the presenters encountered when partnering with quality departments and provided strategies on how simulation can be used to address quality improvement at hospitals.
Thank you to everyone who attended the 2024 ACS Surgical Simulation Summit. Your active participation was key to the success of the meeting. We hope to see everyone back next year!
Mark your calendars:
2025 Annual ACS Surgical Simulation Summit
Thursday, March 20 and Friday, March 21, 2025 | Chicago, IL
