Ohio Chapter Meeting Engages ACS President with Talks on Physician Wellness, Surgeon Collegiality

ACS President E. Christopher Ellison, MD, FACS, MAMSE, met with colleagues from the ACS Ohio Chapter last month. He provided the following report about his experience:

I was delighted to participate in the Ohio ACS Chapter meeting May 12-13, 2023, in Columbus. My hosts were Chapter President Amy A. McDonald, MD, FACS, a critical care specialist at MetroHealth in Cleveland, and President-Elect Alisha D. Reiss, MD, FACS, a rural surgeon from Greenville who is affiliated with Wayne Healthcare. In Ohio, there are 2,787 ACS members (615 female), with 1,491 identifying as general surgeons and the remainder distributed across the surgical specialties. The Chapter averages more than 50 Initiates per year. In Ohio, there are 94 ACS accredited cancer programs, 53 verified trauma centers, 27 accredited breast centers, 32 accredited bariatric centers, seven NSQIP hospitals, and five NSQIP Pediatric hospitals.

The meeting began with concurrent cancer liaisons and trauma meetings. The cancer topics were multidisciplinary and began with a Commission on Cancer update from Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, Medical Director of the ACS Cancer Programs. The trauma session, “Will Your Organization Survive a Sandy Hook Stress Test?” included discussions on:

• Disaster plans – do they work?
• What is the trigger to call it an MCI (mass casualty incident)?
• What is the role of simulation?
• Rural vs. Urban, what are the differences?
• How does hospital disaster preparedness differ from the regional healthcare coordinator?
• Where do we go from here?

In the afternoon, there were excellent sessions on physician health, including a spectacular virtual talk on “Physician Suicide” by Sharmila Dissanaike, MD, FACS, FCCM, an ACS Governor and chair of surgery at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. The bottom line was that physicians are much more likely to commit suicide than the average population. Discussion included how to recognize those most prone to this action and strategies and interventions to reduce them.

This was followed by a lecture, “Reducing the Risk for Overuse Injuries in the Operating Room,” by Eric Schneider, PT, MPT, DHSc, OCS, CMTPT, from Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. He gave examples of the type of injuries that can occur and simple warmup stretching exercises that can prevent them. I found it interesting that robotic surgery was not as protective as I had thought, possibly related to the duration of the cases with the surgeon sitting in a fixed position.

The Ohio Oration is an annual event given by surgical or community leaders. Michael D. Sarap, MD, FACS, a past-ACS Governor, past-chapter President, and practicing rural surgeon, delivered the lecture, “The Ohio Chapter: Surgical Collegiality in Ohio.” This lecture described his involvement with the Ohio Chapter and key benefits to membership, including collegiality, networking, education, and advocacy. He mentioned that involvement in the Ohio Chapter benefits individual surgeons and their patients, the greater population of the State of Ohio, special interest surgical groups, and the ACS. The Ohio Chapter has been an incubator for surgeon leadership at the national level.

A case in point is that I have been honored to serve as the fifth ACS President from Ohio. The four former ACS Presidents from the Buckeye state, all of whom were iconic leaders in American surgery and the Ohio Chapter, include George W. Crile (1916–1917), a general surgeon from Cleveland who was an ACS founding member and second ACS president, as well as a founder of the Cleveland Clinic; Robert M. Zollinger (1961–1962), a general surgeon from Columbus; William A. Altemeier (1978–1979), a general surgeon from  Cincinnati; and Ralph A. Straffon (1991–1992), a urologist from Cleveland. Each of these individuals made landmark contributions to the field of surgery in general and led the profession and the college with dignity and respect.

Other events at the meeting included a rousing Surgical Jeopardy competition between Wright State University, MetroHealth, and The Ohio State University (OSU). In a close match, OSU prevailed. Additional offerings included an ACS Resident and Associate Society (RAS)-sponsored session: Challenges Faced by the Modern-Day Surgeon and Surgical Family, and then general sessions on impactful papers and interesting cases.

The resident paper competition included fabulous papers:

• First place – Samantha Wala, MD - Enteral Administration of Lactobacillus reuteri in its Biofilm State Protects the Intestines in a Piglet Model of Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Nationwide Children's)
• Second place – Omar Obaid, MD - Inpatient Peritoneal Dialysis Catheters Placed Over A 3-year Period in the United States: Lessons Learned from 15,000 Patients (Toledo)
• Third place – Ryan Chae, MD - Supplementation with the polyphenol oleuropein fails to reduce the red blood cell storage lesion (UCinn)

Christopher Ellison, MD, FACS, MAMSE
ACS President