US Army
Lieutenant Colonel Maggie Gallagher, MD, FACS
Army surgeons continue to build connections and form relationships across all military services. Excelsior membership has grown and we continue to flourish as a community despite various challenges. We continue to see military-civilian partnerships and agreements grow. Our consultant group continues to work hard to keep us updated on deployment schedules and they provide input to the Defense Health Agency (DHA) and the Medical Corps regarding our specialty based on our insight and feedback. Speaking of feedback, we have finally seen a return of a shorter career course. The Army continues to encourage young surgeons to become involved with the Excelsior Surgical Society and to stay active in academic surgery.
Army surgeons play an important role in the broader surgical community by serving as committee members and holding leadership positions in various national organizations, including the ACS. Please continue to encourage your surgical colleagues to join the Excelsior Surgical Society. Working together as an organization and a team, we can continue to leverage positive change from within the College.
US Navy
Commander Tamara Worlton, MD, FACS
The Navy continues to support multiple billets at military hospitals around the world in addition to our steady operational tempo. We are expanding military civilian partnership with an additional team at Cook County next year. The Navy recognizes the increased need to train and retain surgeons with an additional general surgery training spot at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) is underway this fall to support Continuing Promise. Navy surgeons are keenly involved with supporting the Excelsior Surgical Society and many committees and leadership positions within the ACS.
US Air Force
Lieutenant Colonel Brain J. Gavitt, MD, MPH, FACS
The Air Force is in a period of transition, both in the model of deployed care and the superstructure overseeing the Air Force Medical Service at home. While the details for these changes are being finalized, Air Force surgeons continue to support Critical Care Aeromedical Transport Teams and small surgical team deployments around the globe. The Air Force surgical community has also leaned in on Global Health Engagement missions leveraging members’ skill and expertise to build capability, capacity, and relationships with partner nations on every continent. Additionally, thanks to the dedicated work of several surgical colleagues, the clinical activity reporting for surgeons practicing at military-civilian partnerships in the US has improved; the streamlined reporting processes has helped to paint a more accurate picture of the readiness value of these relationships. Moving forward, we expect to see a continued focus on combat casualty care readiness and an increased emphasis on measuring the readiness value obtained through military-civilian partnerships.
Reserve/National Guard
Colonel Jamison Nielsen, DO, FACS
The Reserve component represents the majority of those in military service and is a critical readiness asset. Through their dual role in the civilian and military sectors, they have unique perspectives and needs. The Excelsior Surgical Society provides a means of sharing lessons learned, insight on both sides of military-civilian partnerships, and a spectrum of solutions for achieving readiness—all areas particularly cogent to military surgery today. Reserve surgeons also face different challenges such as accessing military readiness opportunities and specialty-specific community, in large part due to being geographically dispersed. The ESS is positioned to provide a voice and resource for reserve surgeons. Specifically, it provides community, networking, insight from the reserve consultants, and a forum for engaging leadership.
Civilian
Colonel (Retired) John Oh, MD, FACS
This year, military medicine under the Mission Zero Act continues to provide training for military surgical members and teams at civilian institutions. These partnerships provide military members with high-volume exposure to critical medical skills. Under this partnership, we also continue to train military physicians at civilian institutions in general surgery, orthopaedics, neurosurgery, and emergency medicine residency programs. We are now 3 years into grant funding for the Mission Zero Act, and the collaborations with civilian partners continue to grow yearly. Institutional and individual commitments to excellence in patient care, education, research, and professional development are essential to the success of these programs. We look forward to another successful year of collaboration.
Resident/Fellow
Captain Kal Gunasingha, MD
I am honored to have served as your Resident Councilperson at-Large these last 2 years. We have continued to expand our social media presence on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I hope to continue supporting efforts to grow this organization and efforts by our mentorship and membership teams to provide beneficial resources to our resident and student members.
