ACS President E. Christopher Ellison, MD, FACS, MAMSE, met with colleagues from West Virginia (WV) during the WV Chapter’s annual meeting. He provided the following report about his experience:
I was invited to the West Virginia ACS Chapter for its annual meeting at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. I was hosted by Chapter President W. Andrew Stewart MD, FACS, who is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon from Charleston, and two general surgeons: Mark A. Choueiri MD, FACS, an ACS Governor also from Charleston, and Alan A. Thomay, MD, FACS, Chapter First Vice-President from Morgantown.
The WV ACS Chapter has 457 members, with 287 identifying as general surgeons and the remainder equally distributed across the surgical disciplines. There are 84 female members. West Virginia is home to 10 ACS-accredited cancer centers, eight verified trauma centers, three accredited breast centers, and four accredited bariatric centers.
The program included presentations on abdominal emergencies, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, trauma, airway management, leadership, vascular surgery, and changes in rural surgery. There were high-quality resident competition papers in trauma and cancer surgery.
In the plenary session, Diane Krutzler, MD, FACS, from Huntington, presented an interesting lecture, “Management of the Breast in the Transgender Patient,” that raised specific management options and consideration in these patients. These patients not infrequently have difficulty finding a physician or surgeon, as many of us are not aware of practice guidelines for the management of breast disease in transgender patients. This is a very complex topic and will continue to be important as the trans population currently surpasses 1.4 million in the US. Although the trans population is small in WV, the number of trans adolescents is high relative to other states.
The meeting had some unique aspects, the first being a half-day simulation course focused on basic laparoscopic skills directed by Dr. Thomay. This was a popular addition to the meeting and was attended by 30 medical students interested in surgery.
The meeting also hosted the second annual WV Chapter Surgical Jeopardy contest, a competition among the three general surgery programs in WV: Charleston Academic Medical Institute, Marshall University, and West Virginia University. It was fast-moving and very competitive. It came down to Final Jeopardy and the question, “Pass the ….”. Although Marshall University took home the prize, in my opinion, all the teams were winners.
