About

Medical Director for the Mastery in General Surgery Program

Preston R. Miller III MD, FACS is a professor in the Department of Surgery of Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He currently serves as the director of emergency general surgery and the program chief for the Mastery in General Surgery program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem NC. He joined the department of surgery in 2001 after completing a trauma/critical care fellowship with the University of Tennessee at Memphis at the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center. Dr Miller attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate degree and attended The Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC for medical school. This was followed by a residency in general surgery at North Carolina Baptist Hospital, also in Winston-Salem, NC. His clinical practice centers on emergency general surgery, care of complex general surgical patients, trauma care, and surgical intensive care medicine. He serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons as the representative of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and serves on the Acute Care Surgery Committee and the Palliative Care Committee of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. He has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery since 2017. His research interests include multiple emergency general surgery and trauma topics as well as surgical quality, surgical education, substance use disorder in surgical populations and surgical care models in underserved populations.

Overview

The ACS Mastery in General Surgery Program (MGSP) was developed to provide graduating surgical residents with personalized mentorship in clinical settings to help in the launching of a successful career. It is designed primarily for those interested in pursuing a career in general surgery. The program allows Junior Associates to develop expertise, competence, and confidence in multiple aspects of general surgical practice including patient care, professional development, quality and safety, and practice management. This is accomplished through autonomous experience under the mentorship of experienced surgeons, which provides practical, hands-on opportunities for the maturation of surgical skills.

Background

The Mastery in General Surgery Program was formerly called the Transition to Practice (TTP) Program and launched in 2013 for two primary reasons. First, the ACS Board of Governors’ annual survey of its members consistently listed concerns about “preparedness for practice” as an issue. Second, while roughly 80 percent of general surgery residents completing training pursued a specialty fellowship, no formal mechanism for mentored practice was in place for those individuals wishing to pursue a broad-based career in the practice of general surgery. Consequently, as summed up at the time by J. David Richardson MD, FACS, MAMSE, the profession could be “rightly accused of training too many surgeons in specialties for which there is a lesser need and not training enough people in general surgery for which there is a crying need.” The Mastery Program was developed to address these issues.

The leaders of this initiative recognized the fact that many graduating residents desired to begin to practice independently without additional training. At the same time, these leaders sought to develop a structured program for interested graduating general surgery residents in broad-based general surgery using a model based on individual mentorship and inclusion of non-clinical topics such as coding and billing, practice management, or quality improvement.

History

In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Steering Committee, led by Dr. Richardson, solicited, reviewed, and evaluated program feedback. This resulted in a strategic decision to enhance the program and rename it the “Mastery in General Surgery Program” to better reflect its mission and goals. The basic tenets of the program remain unchanged, and additional educational and networking opportunities were introduced. The program maintains the hallmarks of individualized assessment and tailored experiences. The new ACS Mastery in General Surgery Program launched in spring 2018. 

Learn more about the origins of the Mastery in General Surgery Program through the following resources:

• From Transition to Practice to Mastery in General Surgery co-authored by J. David Richardson, MD, FACS, Brooke M. Buckley, MD, FACS, Mohsen M. Shabahang, MD, PHD, FACS, W. Heath Giles, MD, FACS, Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, and R. Phillip Burns, MD, FACS in the July 2018 issue of the Bulletin 
• Review of Transition to Practice programs co-authored by TTP program participants, Thomas H. Cogbill, MD, FACS, and Stephen B. Shapiro, MD, FACS, in the February 2016 issue of Surgical Clinics of North America
• Update on the progress of the TTP Program discussed by ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS in the April 2014 issue of the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons
• Description of the needs assessment, design, and future direction of the TTP Program by Steering Committee Chair J. David Richardson, MD, FACS, in the September 2013 issue of the Bulletin
• Overview of the ACS TTP Program detailed by Dr. Hoyt in the February 2013 issue of the Bulletin

See the full video playlist on YouTube.