Our esteemed panel addressed issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion in surgery and surgical education. Please note that the online course is designated for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
L.D. Britt, MD, MPH, DSc(Hon), FACS, FCCM, FRCSEng(Hon), FRCSEd(Hon), FWACS(Hon), FRCSI(Hon), FCS(SA)(Hon), FRCS(Glasg)(Hon), MAMSE
A proud native of Suffolk, VA, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), Dr. Britt has strong southern roots and is the product of the public school system. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, he is the Brickhouse Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School. He is the author of 300 scientific publications (with more than 231 being peer-reviewed articles). In addition, he is the author of three textbooks, including a recent edition of Acute Care Surgery.
Dr. Britt is past-Chair of the ACS Board of Regents, as well as a Past-President of the ACS, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the American Surgical Association. He is the past-Secretary of the Southern Surgical Association, the past Recorder/Program Chair for the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and past-president of the Southeastern Surgical Congress, the Halsted Society, and the Southern Surgical Association. At the inaugural presidential ceremony held in Washington, DC, during the 96th annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Britt was awarded the U.S. Surgeon General’s medallion for his outstanding achievements in medicine. The Honorable Regina Benjamin, MD, the 18th US Surgeon General, presented this award at a formal ceremony. President George W. Bush recognized Dr. Britt’s leadership role in medicine and nominated him to the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University (confirmed by the United States Senate). At the end of his tenure, Dr. Britt was awarded the coveted Distinguished Service Medal. Dr. Britt, author of the term “Acute Care Surgery” and one of the principal architects of this emerging specialty, was the 2013 recipient of the prestigious Roswell Park Medal. He was honored for his major contributions to American surgery.
At the 148th commencement at Howard University, Dr. Britt was conferred an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Science). His co-honorees included President Barack Obama, activist and award-winning actor Cicely Tyson, and Ambassador Dawson. In the summer of 2016, Dr. Britt conducted his 200th visiting professorship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL, where he completed his residency training. He was the inaugural John A. Barrett, M.D. lecturer that kicked off the 50th anniversary celebration for Cook County Hospital Trauma Unit. He was elected to the NAM (formerly the Institute of Medicine) in 2016. He is the first and only faculty member from his institution to receive this distinction, considered one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine. Dr. Britt was awarded, as the Principal Investigator (PI), a multimillion dollar NIH-R01 research grant (1 R01 MD011695-01). He was also recently awarded, as the Co-Investigator (CO-I), another multimillion dollar NIH-RO1 research grant (1 R01 MD011685-01). The Mayo Clinic bestowed upon Dr. Britt one of the institutions highest honors by appointing him to be the Donald Balfour Visiting Professor. In addition to the unveiling of his latest edition of the textbook, Acute Care Surgery (Wolters Kluwer), Dr. Britt was inducted into the inaugural class of the Academy of Master Surgeons Educators of the American College of Surgeons in October 2018. He is a founding member of the Academy. In 2019, Dr. Britt was awarded the coveted Silbergleit Award given by the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. He is only the third individual to receive this recognition for his sustained leadership role as an accomplished program director.
J. Wayne Meredith MD, FACS
Dr. Meredith is the Richard T. Myers Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery (formerly General Surgery), Chief of Clinical Chairs and Chief of Surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Health, NC. A graduate of Emory University, GA, Dr. Meredith received his MD from Bowman Gray School of Medicine and joined the faculty of Wake Forest University Health Sciences in 1987 and was named Professor and Chairman of General Surgery in 1997 and Director of Surgical Sciences in 2000. Dr. Meredith holds a cross-appointment at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a joint appointment as Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics.
Dr. Meredith has served as Director of the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He is a past-president of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), the Southern Surgical Association (SSA), the Halsted Society, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST), and the Southeastern Surgical Congress (SESC). Dr. Meredith served as the Medical Director of Trauma Programs of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) from 2006 through 2010 and was Chair of the Committee on Trauma from 2002 to 2006. In 2014, Dr. Meredith was recipient of the ACS Distinguished Service Award recognizing his scientific contributions to cardiovascular physiology during resuscitation, trauma registries, and trauma systems as well as his leadership and dedicated service as a Fellow of the ACS.
In October 2019, Dr. Meredith was nominated as President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons. He was inducted as President on October 4, 2020, at the Virtual Annual Clinical Congress.
Carla M. Pugh, MD, PhD, FACS, MAMSE
Dr. Pugh a professor of surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, and director of the Technology Enabled Clinical Improvement (TECI) Center. Her clinical area of expertise is acute care surgery and her research involves the use of simulation and advanced engineering technologies to develop new approaches for assessing and defining competency in clinical procedural skills. Dr. Pugh is considered to be a leading, international expert on the use of sensors and motion tracking technologies for performance measurement.
Dr. Pugh obtained her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley in neurobiology and her medical degree at Howard University School of Medicine, Washington, DC. Upon completion of her surgical training at Howard University Hospital, she attended Stanford University to obtain her PhD in education. Her goal is to use technology to change the face of medical and surgical education.
Dr. Pugh holds multiple patents on the use of sensor and data acquisition technology to measure and characterize hands-on clinical skills. Currently, over 200 medical and nursing schools are using one of her sensor-enabled training tools for their students and trainees. Her work has received numerous awards from medical and engineering organizations, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Barack Obama at the White House in 2011. In 2014, she was invited to give a TEDMED talk on the potential uses of technology to transform how we measure clinical skills in medicine. Recently, Dr. Pugh was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (April 2018), the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators (April 2019), as well as the American Board of Surgery Council (February 2020).
Moderated by
Mohsen Shabahang, MD, PhD, FACS, is the chair of the Geisinger Surgery Institute, Danville, PA, and the director of general surgery residency. Dr. Shabahang joined Geisinger in July 2010 as the director of the department of general surgery and director of the general surgery residency program at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville.
Welcome remarks will be 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.
