The ACS recently launched a new Strategic Plan, designed to advance organizational priorities and provide value to surgeons, the profession, and the patients they serve. The plan has four pillars and one foundational concept. This week, the ACS Brief highlights the second pillar.
Pillar 2: Revolutionize and Educate
The second pillar of the ACS Strategic Plan is focused on updating, expanding, and transforming ACS educational resources for surgeons.
The ACS continues to innovate and update evidence-based courses for use across the entire trajectory of surgical training and practice. Forthcoming launches include the 11th edition of Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®), Surgical Education and Self-Assessment Program (SESAP®) 19 and SESAP® 19 Advanced, and resources for resident assessment, including the Objective Assessment of Skills in Surgery (OASIS), which uses simulation-based stations to measure resident performance, and a new Senior Resident Readiness Assessment (SRRA) complementing the ACS Entering Resident Readiness Assessment (ERRA).
Additionally, expanded offerings at ACS conferences, including Clinical Congress, will offer personalized education and new skills courses. Finally, an updated ACS artificial intelligence/machine learning course will help ensure surgeons can use this technology rigorously and safely.
Revolutionizing means extending this work beyond individual courses to update the systems and methods underlying all ACS educational resources. The ACS is modernizing all educational platforms and content, so more surgeons can access personalized, relevant offerings. This includes the new MyATLS app, Current Trends in General Surgery online course, ACS Integrated Curriculum for Surgical Education (ACS INCISE) medical student platform and will include a new Cancer Operative Standards webinar series coming soon.
This pillar also includes fostering greater collaborations with a wide range of specialty organizations to educate surgeons and surgical trainees. This incorporates increasing the impact of the annual Surgical Simulation Summit and related simulation courses; extending more educational opportunities to surgeons in sub-Saharan Africa via the ACS surgical volunteerism initiative, ACS H.O.P.E.; expanding the popular Surgeons as Educators and Surgeons as Leaders courses; combining the annual ACS Cancer Conference with the ACS Quality and Safety Conference to ensure the greatest value for attendees; and more.
This pillar of the ACS Strategic Plan will help surgeons advance their clinical skills by providing the rigorous learning they need to meet their patients’ needs.
Read more:
Introducing the New ACS Strategic Plan – Executive Director’s Update (July/August 2025 Bulletin)
Pillar 1: Advance Patient-Centered Care and Surgical Quality (August 5 ACS Brief)
Additional articles addressing the two remaining pillars and foundation of the plan will be published in the coming weeks.
