ACS Brief

ACS Fights to Protect Surgeons and Patients in Comments to CMS

September 15, 2026

The ACS submitted extensive comments yesterday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the agency’s 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule.

Transplant Pioneer Dr. Paul Russell Dies at 101

September 15, 2026

Paul S. Russell Jr., MD, FACS, a pioneering transplant surgeon and scientist who helped establish organ transplantation as a viable clinical treatment, died August 22 at the age of 101. 

Over a career spanning more than seven decades at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dr. Russell helped advance both the surgical techniques and immunologic science that made modern transplantation possible.

ctDNA Predicts Colon Cancer Recurrence, but Treatment Questions Remain

September 15, 2026

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a powerful marker of minimal residual disease (MRD) after curative-intent resection for colon cancer. Postoperative ctDNA detection is strongly associated with subsequent recurrence and provides prognostic information beyond traditional clinicopathologic risk factors.

Read this week's entire issue for the latest news on the ACS and the field of surgery.

Go to your MyCME Portal today and verify your ABS ID and date of birth on the Board Certification Tab so you can have your CME data automatically transmitted to the ABS via ACCME.

Flexibility Stigma Discourages Surgical Trainees from Using Work-Life Accommodations

In the latest episode of The Operative Word from JACS podcast, host Dr. Tom Varghese is joined by Dr. Erika Rangel to discuss her recent JACS article, “Flexibility Stigma and the Double Bind of Family Formation in Medical and Surgical Residency.” Dr. Rangel and her coauthors found that flexibility stigma can deter pregnant and parenting trainees from using needed work-life accommodations, creating a double bind between training expectations and personal well-being. The authors call for structural and cultural reforms to better support equity, retention, and trainee health.