Faculty Engagement in Challenging Financial Times: Viewpoints of Department Chairs

The ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators™ Virtual Grand Rounds Series is pleased to present this virtual panel discussion with Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, Dr. Anton Sidawy, and Dr. Julie Ann Sosa, moderated by Dr. Mohsen Shabahang, with introductory remarks by Dr. Ajit K. Sachdeva. The session addressed the concept of faculty engagement and the educational mission of Surgical Departments from the standpoint of Department Chairs. The discussion centers on the question of how to align financial incentives with the critical need to educate learners.

This Virtual Grand Rounds recording is designated for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Fabrizio Michelassi, MD, FACS, ESA(Hon), SIC(Hon), SACPNE(Hon), MAMSE, is the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery and Chairman of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. A world-renowned gastrointestinal surgeon with a strong expertise in the surgical treatment of gastrointestinal and pancreatic cancers as well as inflammatory bowel disease, Dr. Michelassi has contributed new insight in the surgical treatment of pancreatic and colorectal cancers, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease though research and participation to multiple clinical trials. His experience and expertise in treating Crohn’s disease led him to develop a novel bowel-sparing procedure, now known as the Michelassi strictureplasty, designed to avoid sacrificing large amounts of bowel at the time of surgery and facilitating quiescence of the acute disease affecting the diseased intestinal loops.

A prolific author of more than 330 papers, book chapters, and abstracts, he has edited a book on operative strategies in inflammatory bowel disease and has been invited to be a visiting professor as well as deliver keynote lectures and named lectures at more than 400 national and international institutions. A recognized leader in the gastrointestinal surgical field, Dr. Michelassi has been appointed to many international and national task forces and panels. A member of more than 50 professional societies, Dr. Michelassi was elected to leadership positions in many of them and has served as president in seven of them: the Society for the Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Society of Surgical Chairs, the Western Surgical Society, the Central Surgical Association, the Illinois Surgical Society and the New York Surgical Society. Dr. Michelassi is a Regent of the American College of Surgeons, a Founding Member of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators, and an Honorary Member of the European Surgical Association.

Anton N. Sidawy, MD, MPH, FACS, MAMSE, a vascular surgeon from Washington, DC, is Professor and the Lewis B. Saltz Chair of the Department of Surgery at the George Washington University. He assumed this position in 2010 after completing a 14-year tenure as the Chief of Surgery at the Washington DC VA Medical Center in Washington, DC.

Dr. Sidawy is the new Chair of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Board of Regents. Dr. Sidawy has been a member of the Board since 2015. He previously served six years on the ACS Board of Governors, was President of the ACS Metropolitan Washington Chapter, and Chair of the ACS Committee on Chapter Activities. He is an inaugural member of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators and now serves on its Steering Committee. He chaired a group within the Academy that documented and shared experiences from institutions in the midst of the COVID-19 surge in 2020, and now serves as Consulting Editor of the Academy’s Cutting Edge of Surgical Education, an online portal recently established to publish peer-reviewed educational material.

Dr. Sidawy has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and 55 chapters, numerous abstracts, and made several national and international presentations; his work spans the clinical, research, and educational fields. In addition, Dr. Sidawy served a 7.5-year term as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vascular Surgery—at the time, the premier journal in the specialty ranking first among its peers in the U.S. and across the world. During his term as editor, Dr. Sidawy launched the Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders in 2013 and the Journal of Vascular Surgery-Cases in 2015 and served as their founding editor-in-chief. Further, he has edited three textbooks: the Basic Science of Vascular Disease (1997), Diabetic Foot, Lower Extremity Arterial Disease, and Limb Salvage (2006), and, along with Dr. Bruce A. Perler, the 9th edition of Rutherford's Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy in 2018, a two-volume text often called the bible of the specialty. He and Dr. Perler were appointed editors of the 10th edition of this textbook.

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, MAMSE, is the Leon Goldman MD Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where she is also a professor in the department of medicine and affiliated faculty for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Dr. Sosa came to UCSF in 2018 from Duke. Her clinical interest is in endocrine surgery, with a focus in thyroid cancer. She is an NIH- and FDA-funded investigator and author of 350 peer-reviewed publications and 80 book chapters and reviews, all largely focused on outcomes research, health care delivery, hyperparathyroidism, and thyroid cancer, with a focus on clinical trials. She has authored or edited seven books. Dr. Sosa is president-elect of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and serves on the Board of Directors/Executive Council of the ATA and International Thyroid Oncology Group, as well as practice guidelines committees for the ATA, NCCN, and the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons; for the ATA, she is chairing the committee responsible for writing the next iteration of differentiated thyroid cancer guidelines. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Surgery and is an editor of Greenfield’s Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice. She has mentored more than 90 students, residents, and fellows, for which she was recognized with induction as a full member to the ACS Academy of Master Educators in 2020, and with the Lewis E. Braverman Distinguished Lectureship Award from the ATA in 2017. Dr. Sosa was born in Montreal and raised in upstate New York. She received her AB at Princeton, MA at Oxford, and MD at Johns Hopkins, where she completed the Halsted residency and a fellowship.

Moderated by

The session is moderated by Mohsen Shabahang, MD, PhD, FACS, MAMSE, Chair of the Subcommittee on Novel Teaching and Assessment Methods and Educational Resources for the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. Dr. Shabahang is the VP/CMO of the Wellspan Surgery Service Line, York, PA. Dr. Shabahang joined Wellspan in summer 2021.

Welcome remarks are given by Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, MAMSE, Director of the ACS Division of Education and Co-Chair, Steering Committee of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators.