ACSPA
The ACSPA, a 501(c)(6), allows for a broad range of activities and services that benefit surgeons and patients, including expanded legislative advocacy and political programming such as the ACSPA Political Action Committee (ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC).
From January 1 to May 22, 2023, the ACSPA-SurgeonsPAC raised more than $157,000 from 400 ACS members and eligible contributors and disbursed nearly $146,000 to 67 candidates seeking federal offices, political campaigns, and other PACs. Fund distribution focuses on health professionals, key congressional leaders, and members who serve on US House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over various healthcare policies and issues, including ACS-supported legislative priorities.
ACS
The BoR accepted resignations from 11 Fellows and changed the status from Active or Senior to Retired for 131 Fellows.
Division of Education
The ACS Committee on Ethics, housed in the Division of Education, is planning several activities for Clinical Congress 2023, including the John J. Conley Ethics and Philosophy Lecture, Evolving Concepts of Professionalism in Surgery—Shield or Weapon?, to be presented by Travis N. Rieder, PhD, who is director of the master of bioethics degree program at Johns Hopkins University and author of In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids.
Other activities include:
- “Ethics of Surgical Innovation” panel session
- Meet the Expert session “Ethics Consults: How Can They Help Me?”
- Town Hall session “The Surgeon and Industry: Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Commitment”
Offered for the first time in 2015, the Fellowship in Surgical Ethics is sponsored by the ACS Division of Education and The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at The University of Chicago. The program’s goals are to prepare surgeons for careers that combine clinical surgery with scholarly studies in surgical ethics and provide specialized knowledge, skills, and training to develop leaders in the field of surgical ethics. Recipients selected for 2023–2024 are Kathryn D. Bass, MD, MBA, FACS, FAAP, from Roanoke, Virginia, and Amanda Witte, MD, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Division of Member Services
A strategic analysis of the Division of Member Services was conducted to review the Division’s programs and products, identify internal and external challenges, define the future vision, and establish priorities for moving forward.
Reviewed topics included:
- Division of Member Services’ scholarship program
- Membership recruitment and retention
Strategic goals included:
- Developing new recruitment opportunities to increase membership
- Establishing metrics and policies to evaluate scholarship programs
- Exploring new tactics to increase engagement from all surgical disciplines
- Fostering additional membership retention plans
- Increasing resident membership across all specialties to demonstrate the value of membership and convert resident members to lifelong Fellows
Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care
The Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care (DROPC) encompasses the areas of Continuous Quality Improvement, including ACS research and accreditation programs.
Cancer Programs
The overarching mission of the College’s seven Cancer Programs is to improve the care of the patient with cancer. The Cancer Programs work together to achieve this mission by setting standards, monitoring compliance, accrediting sites, collecting and reporting on vital statistics, and using vital statistics to drive quality improvement, research, optimization of staging, operative standards, and best practices.
The Cancer Programs have currently met the following strategic 2022–2023 goals:
- Created a portfolio of grant-based cancer research that supports new products and services within the ACS Cancer Department
- Conducted Just Ask—a national quality improvement (QI) project on smoking cessation—across 800 programs with more than 2,000 completed QI projects
- Convened the ACS Cancer Conference: Where Cancer Care Comes Together, in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 1–4, 2023, with nearly 400 participants
- Launched a standards revision project for the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC)
- Held a dozen webinars addressing topics such as TNM Staging, operative standards implementation, and accreditation standards for Commission on Cancer, National Accreditation Program for Breast Cancer, and NAPRC
- Published Optimal Resources for Breast Care (2024 Standards)
- Supported a radio and television media communication campaign for breast, lung, and colorectal cancer awareness months with approximately 75 million impressions
For 2023, Key Performance Indicators for the Cancer Programs include accrediting 2,200 programs, reporting on 1.5 million new cancer cases, and developing 6–10 new cancer staging and synoptic operative report protocols.
Trauma Programs
The STOP THE BLEED® (STB) program continues to focus on empowering, educating, and informing individuals in bleeding control techniques with virtual, in-person, and interactive training.
May marked the 5th Annual National STOP THE BLEED Month. Throughout the month, stories, videos, photos, and other content were shared on ACS social media channels and the STOP THE BLEED website. On May 25, which was National STOP THE BLEED Day, ACS co-hosted an educational event in collaboration with the Chicago Cubs and the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications before that evening’s game. ACS STB representatives distributed t-shirts and educational materials, and ACS STB instructors provided hands-on practice for the skills portion of the STB Course.
The second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention was held September 10–11, 2022, at the ACS Chicago headquarters. A manuscript detailing the meeting’s proceedings was published in the February 2023 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
The Healthcare Coalition for Firearm Injury Prevention, a multidisciplinary coalition of professional medical and public health organizations, currently is being established. The Coalition will focus on projects and initiatives to advance firearm-related injury prevention using a public health approach.
The redesigned MyATLS application is scheduled to launch this fall. The app will inform the design of the ATLS 11 Manual, PowerPoint templates, and online modules. A variable pricing model will be implemented based on educational components, hardships, and varying learners. MyATLS will be available globally using an equity model with free content for those who live in low- and middle-income countries.
The 2023 TQIP Annual Conference will be held December 1–3 in Louisville, Kentucky. Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. MacKenzie’s research focuses on the impact of health services and policies on the short‐ and long‐term consequences of traumatic injury. Other sessions will focus on trauma survivorship, registry/data quality, and using data to improve patient outcomes.
Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
A strategic analysis of the Office of DEI was conducted to review the Office’s programs and products, identify internal and external challenges, define the future vision, and establish priorities for moving forward.
Reviewed topics included:
- External DEI initiatives
- Internal DEI initiatives
Strategic goals included:
- Developing a longitudinal program to further research and generate knowledge into disparities in surgical care and their mitigation
- Developing a system of review and verification of DEI programs for hospitals, departments of surgery, and professional organizations to meet the recommendations and requirements such as the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service’s health equity standards, and The Joint Commission
- Operationalizing and garnering support for the ongoing DEI efforts and services of the College
ACS Foundation
The ACS Foundation remains focused on securing and growing financial support for the College’s charitable, educational, and patient-focused initiatives. Through May 21, the Foundation had raised $2,351,383 in donations and grant support. Individual donations totaling $442,926 were secured, with $214,871 supporting Greatest Needs with those monies being directed toward $200,000 in scholarships.
Programs, projects, and initiatives received $978,332. Corporate support reached $674,779, focusing on support of educational surgical programs at Clinical Congress 2023.
The Fall Appeal generated $152,977, with National Doctors’ Day generating $14,072 in gifts.
Fellows continued to generously support the Stop the Bleed Ukraine Campaign with gifts totaling $93,951.
