The Board of Directors of the American College of Surgeons Professional Association (ACSPA) and the ACS Board of Regents (BoR) met February 3–4, 2023, at the College’s office in Washington, DC. The following is a summary of key activities discussed. The information provided was current as of the date of the meeting.
ACSPA
The ACSPA, a 501(c)(6), allows for a broad range of activities and services that benefits surgeons and patients, including expanded legislative advocacy and political programming such as the ACSPA Political Action Committee (ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC).
During the 2022 election cycle (January 1, 2022–December 31, 2022), the ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC raised more than $667,800 from 948 ACS members and eligible contributors and disbursed nearly $573,000 to 117 candidates seeking federal offices, political campaigns, and other PACs. In addition, 95% of the individuals who the SurgeonsPAC supported were successful in winning election, including two new US Representatives: Yadira Caraveo, MD (D-CO) and Rich McCormick, MD (R-GA).
SurgeonsPAC continues to prioritize a balanced, nonpartisan disbursement strategy with support for Democrats and Republicans. Distribution of funds is focused on health professionals, key congressional leaders, and members who serve on important US House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over various healthcare policies and issues, including ACS-supported legislative priorities.
ACS
The BoR accepted resignations from four Fellows and changed the status from Active or Senior to Retired for 53 Fellows. The Regents also approved a revision to the 2014 Statement on Bicycle Safety and the Promotion of Bicycle Helmet Use.
Division of Education
The ACS Committee on Ethics, housed in the Division of Education, is planning several activities for Clinical Congress 2023:
- J. Conley Ethics and Philosophy Lecture
- “Ethics of Surgical Innovation” panel session
- Meet the Expert session “Ethics Consults: How Can They Help Me?”
- Town Hall session “The Surgeon and Industry: Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Commitment”
Division of Integrated Communications
A strategic analysis by the Division of Integrated Communications reviewed the Division’s services, programs, and products, identified internal and external challenges, defined future vision, and established priorities for moving forward.
Reviewed topics included:
- Digital transformation/business intelligence
- Member marketing and communications
- External/influencer communications
Strategic goals included:
- Ensuring that the ACS is not only relevant, but essential to all surgeons
- Raising the ACS profile to positively influence healthcare policy decisions
Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care
The Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care (DROPC) encompasses the areas of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), including ACS research and the accreditation programs.
Cancer Programs
The overarching mission of the College’s seven Cancer Programs is to improve the care of the patient with cancer. The Cancer Programs work together to achieve this mission by setting standards, monitoring compliance, accrediting sites, collecting and reporting on vital statistics, and using vital statistics to drive quality improvement, research, optimization of staging, operative standards, and best practices.
In 2022, the Cancer Programs met the following strategic goals:
- Established the first Cancer National Quality Improvement Collaborative (CaNQIC)
- Conducted Just Ask—a national QI project on smoking cessation—across 800 programs with more than 2,000 completed QI projects
- Published two reports on the first National QI Collaborative project—Return to Screening
- Developed two new national QI projects: Beyond Ask (smoking cessation) and Breaking Barriers (e.g., to cancer care) for implementation in 2023
- Developed a cancer curriculum and sessions for the 2022 Quality and Safety Conference to educate, train, and share QI best practices among cancer accreditation programs
- Incorporated National Cancer Database (NCDB) codes and American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging into Cancer Surgery Standards Program synoptic operative reports
- Analyzed NCDB statistics to report the national impact of COVID-19 on cancer diagnoses
- Created new National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers patient journey standards for accreditation (published in February 2023)
- Completed and distributed pediatric cancer standards
For 2023, Key Performance Indicators for the Cancer Programs include accrediting 2,200 programs, reporting on 1.5 million new cancer cases, and developing 6–10 new cancer staging and synoptic operative report protocols.
Trauma Programs
The 2022 TQIP Annual Conference was held December 11–13 in Phoenix, AZ. The keynote speaker, Stephen W. Trzeciak, MD, MPH, an intensivist and clinical researcher at Cooper University Health Care Camden, NJ, and author of Compassionomics, discussed the importance of compassion in combatting burnout. The 2023 TQIP Annual Conference will be held December 1–3, in Louisville, KY.
The second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention was held September 10–11, 2022, at the ACS Chicago headquarters. A manuscript detailing the meeting’s proceedings was submitted to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
The Healthcare Coalition for Firearm Injury Prevention, a multidisciplinary coalition of professional medicine and public health organizations, currently is being established. The Coalition will focus on projects and initiatives to advance firearm-related injury prevention using a public health approach.
The MyATLS application redesign project is underway. The new design will have a content management system allowing for continuous updates of application material, along with an improved user interface and experience system. Gaming options also will be included to reinforce educational objectives.
The project framework is based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles and will provide for diversity in representation, equity in access, and inclusion in design, development, and delivery. Content will be made available free of charge to low- and middle-income countries.
The STOP THE BLEED® (STB) program continues to focus on empowering, educating, and informing individuals in bleeding control techniques. The November 2022 comic book issue of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero featured the STB program. A framed copy of the issue will be displayed at the ACS Chicago headquarters. The STB program will partner with Hasbro, the maker of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, on future efforts.
In conjunction with the Safe Chicago program, the STB program successfully placed 550 STB kits in more than 350 locations throughout the city. Following this successful implementation, other cities have inquired how to implement a similar safety program within their respective city/county.
ACS Safe Community Standards currently are being developed, and Milwaukee, WI, will serve as a pilot city to develop the necessary standards for the initiative. Discussions to implement similar programs are underway in Phoenix, AZ, and Seattle, WA.
The ACS and the STB program have supported the ongoing war in Ukraine by facilitating the ordering and shipping of bleeding control supplies via fundraising efforts or by vetting organizations with missions in that area. These combined efforts have provided more than $1.7 million in humanitarian orders, with 68,880 Combat Application Tourniquets delivered to Ukraine. More than $90,000 in donations were placed via stopthebleed.org.
Office of DEI
The Office of DEI continues to focus on achieving its primary goals and producing key deliverables using a four-part strategic framework: assess and organize; educate and align; evaluate and innovate; and convene and collaborate.
To further assess and organize the DEI work across the College, an ACS DEI Leadership Roundtable was created to bring together leaders to share their respective group’s current and planned projects and identify potential gaps. Future meetings will focus on developing common metrics and data collection strategies to measure the reach and impact of ACS DEI initiatives.
The ACS DEI and Anti-Racism Resource and Implementation Toolkit is expected to have a beta launch in June 2023. In collaboration with the Board of Governors (BoG) Diversity Pillar and the ACS Division of Education, the CME-accredited Toolkit will feature a digital, interactive format that allows for ease of use, employs a case-based approach to deliver content that covers more than 40 topics in DEI and anti-racism, and integrates multiple learning modalities.
In partnership with DROPC, an ACS Equity Integration Strategy in Quality and Safety Initiative is underway. By codifying equity into quality and safety standards, the ACS will provide support for 15,000 institutions and programs participating in Quality Verification Programs and working toward improving environmental safety for their workforces. Initial steps for data acquisition are underway, and the launch of Phase 1 is slated for the spring 2023.
