The ACS Kentucky Chapter meeting was in Lexington this year. I landed in the “Bluegrass State,” where I was honored to be met by Chapter President Murielle Brohez, MD, FACS, who is a community general surgeon. During a dinner the night before the official meeting, I met several of the chapter’s officers and chatted about the unique challenges and opportunities of practicing in Kentucky. Among them are the rurality of the state, areas in which tobacco use is heavy, health problems from coal mining issues, and areas of significant poverty. All these contribute to the need for surgical access which is a focus of the surgeons in the state.
The chapter is, as I found out during the meeting the next day, facing these issues with diligence.
The first panel of the day was on rural surgery and included Johonogir Muradov, MD, FACS; Alexander Hou, MD, FACS; Jessica Raque, MD; Lucas Wright, DO; and Murielle Brohez, MD, FACS. Timothy W. Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS, Chair of the ACS Commission on Cancer (CoC) and former Chair of the Kentucky CoC, also reported on these efforts.
As Kentucky is home to two storied surgical training programs, Matthew V. Benns, MD, FACS, discussed the changing nature of general surgical training. Additionally, Crystal Totten, MD, FACS, presented on complex ventral hernia repairs.
A panel on robotics brought to the fore the fact that new trainees expect robotic surgery as a standard tool for their practice and the challenges and results of using the robot. In the spectacular cases session, I was impressed with the presentation of an atrial-esophageal fistula, as well as a case showing the value of preoperative optimization for a difficult ventral hernia repair. Papers by residents and a medical student poster session provided insight to those who will be soon our colleagues in the ACS.
Among the participants were several surgeons practicing rural surgery, including my old friend Gene Shively, MD, FACS. From the western part of the state, I met Caroline Neff, MD, FACS, who is an attending in Pikesville, where a 450-bed hospital in a town of 8,000 serves a rural population of 750,000 people.
From the halls of famous institutions like the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky to Appalachian hollers, the ACS Kentucky Chapter is serving the state with outstanding dedication. It was an honor to be with them.
Tyler G. Hughes, MD, FACS
ACS First Vice-President
