“Final Chapter”
Instead of hopping on a jet on September 28, I got in my car and drove the 75 miles or so to my home chapter meeting which was held in Wichita, Kansas. There, President Benjamin Stone, MD, FAC, led the meeting. Dr. Stone is mid-career with both rural and academic practice experience. Samuel Luka, MD, FACS, and Noel Sanchez, MD, put together an interesting program which was both in person in Wichita and broadcast via Zoom.
The morning session was filled with items of general interest. Medical oncologist Ryan Rader, MD, and breast surgeon Lyndsey Kilgore, MD, FACS, gave an update on breast cancer, which demonstrated how dynamic the treatment of breast cancer is these days. Jennifer McAllaster, MD, FACS, gave two talks. The first was from the Kansas Commission on Cancer; the second was on her special interest in bariatric surgery and the results and implications of the GLP-1 agonist drugs in that field. The afternoon session featured resident and student presentations over a very wide range of topics.
As I looked upon the audience, I realized what an impact the Kansas Chapter of the ACS had on my life. I first attended this meeting 29 years ago. The Kansas Chapter is where I first met ACS Executive Director Tom Russell, MD, FACS, and his successor David Hoyt, MD, FACS. It was where I developed friends from all over Kansas. The room held some of my previous students who are now in their mid-careers and doing fabulous work either in academia or community practices. The mentors I knew from the Kansas Chapter back in the 1990s have faded from view but left behind a legacy of dedicated surgeons seeking to always improve themselves and the care they deliver.
This was my final chapter to visit as First Vice-President, and it is fitting that my home chapter was the venue. The book will soon close on my days in ACS leadership. When I first accepted leadership roles, I envisioned all the things I could perhaps change. As I finish, I realize the critical role I played was to help my younger colleagues achieve their dreams, which will propel the ACS into the latter half of this century much as my mentors and ACS leaders helped my generation close out and launch the 20th and 21st century of surgical care.
I’ll take this moment to thank all the chapters and their members for the wonderful fellowship we shared over the last 2 years. Thanks for the memories as I hand off the baton to those who will lead us to that undiscovered country—the future.
Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS
ACS First Vice-President
