As 2024 draws to a close, I have been reflecting on the many ways the American College of Surgeons upholds our prestigious traditions.
This October, 114 years after the first Clinical Congress, we, once again, welcomed surgeon colleagues to our annual meeting. To more than 10,000 in-person and virtual participants, 1,807 presenters offered 2,530 presentations. We also inducted 1,894 new Fellows representing 74 countries. Continuing this tradition of engaging surgeons in professional development, education, and camaraderie is incredibly meaningful. (For more details, please see our Clinical Congress recap.)
Like Clinical Congress, many ACS accomplishments this year were associated with notable numbers. Here are a few that capture important advancements we made in 2024.
3
This year, we welcomed three new leaders. Our inaugural Chief Health Informatics Officer, Genevieve Melton-Meaux, MD, PhD, FACMI, FACS, FACSRS, is a University of Minnesota colorectal surgeon and health informatics specialist who will lead updates to our data systems and AI offerings. Our first Chief Revenue and Chief Operating Officer is Joe Rytell, who brings a long history of business excellence in medical technology and biosciences to his role. We have selected accomplished cardiothoracic surgeon Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS, MBA, FACS, as the new Editor-in-Chief of JACS.
4
This summer, we launched AJCC Staging Online, a continually updated program for cancer staging. Four to six updated staging protocols are planned for each year; four updates (lung, thymus, and nasopharynx cancer and mesothelioma) were released this year.
20
This year, we also celebrated 20 years since the ACS adopted the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) from the Veterans Administration. NSQIP now includes 700 participating hospitals, representing a significant portion of our Quality Programs’ engagement with 2,200 hospitals worldwide. The Quality Programs we offer now include three launched within the last year: the Vascular Verification Program, Emergency General Surgery Verification Program, and Quality Verification Program, which approaches quality programmatically, across all surgical specialties, at hospital and system levels.
25
Our Trauma Systems Programs recognized their 25th year of service this year, with a broad reach that encompasses 33 US states. In addition, our Trauma area has released Best Practice Guidelines in Traumatic Brain Injury Management in conjunction with our neurosurgery colleagues, as well as MyATLS, an app offering continually updated training in advanced trauma life support. Both are available for download now.
55
This year, 55 volunteer surgeons completed 47 trips to ACS H.O.P.E. Surgical Training Hubs in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zambia. On the ground and via teleconferencing, volunteer surgeons in US academic surgical consortia contributed more than 4,000 hours of service via ACS H.O.P.E., our surgical volunteerism initiative. This is the 20th year this group, founded as Operation Giving Back, has provided support to surgeons in resource-constrained environments. We look forward to many more years of engagement and you volunteering with us.
65+
This August, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services adopted the Age Friendly Hospital Measure, a new standard for improving care for patients over 65. The ACS aggressively advocated for our specialty and enjoyed a significant success in the regulatory realm. This measure is based in part on the ACS Geriatric Surgery Verification (GSV) Program, and your ACS advocacy team was instrumental in ensuring we are not held to unreasonable standards developed for other specialties. Via the GSV, the ACS can help hospitals comply with the new measure, which will take effect on January 1.
80, 10
In 2025, the Excelsior Surgical Society will celebrate twin anniversaries. Military surgeons founded the group in 1945 at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, Italy, and it persisted until its last founding member, Michael E. DeBakey, MD, FACS, died in 2008. Ten years ago, in early 2015, the ACS revived the Society as a home for military surgeons within the College. To honor these 80th and 10th anniversaries, the Society will return to Rome for a special conference in February.
100
Advancing surgical quality through innovation is a key part of the ACS mission, and this September, we gathered 100 experts on surgical adhesions, including surgeons, biologists, and biomedical engineers, for our Surgical Adhesions Improvement Project Summit in Washington, DC. Funded by a $1.3 million donation, the summit launched an ongoing effort to find meaningful solutions to vexing adhesive disease, including distribution of three research grants of $100,000 each.
1,000,000
This year, more than 1 million individuals took our Stop the Bleed course, learning first aid for bleeding emergencies. This replicates our numbers from 2023 and brings the lifetime total of the program to 4.1 million people in 167 countries.
There were more achievements at the ACS in 2024—too many to fit into this brief column. For more details on what the College has achieved this year, please read our Annual Report.
While we highlight the high-impact successes that improve surgical care, public health, and surgical workforce conditions here, please know that we also focus on helping ensure surgeons attain professional fulfillment and lifelong camaraderie. On behalf of the ACS, I wish you all the best in your careers, lives, and personal well-being, in this holiday season, in the new year, and always.
ACS Meetings
Clinical Congress On Demand: If you missed some (or all) of the 2,530 presentations at Clinical Congress this year, you can still access content on demand and claim CME credit online and via the conference app. Videos will remain available until February 24, 2025.
TQIP On Demand: Content from our annual Trauma Quality Improvement Program Annual Conference in November remains available as well. On-demand access to videos is expected to start in early January.
2025 Cancer Conference: If you are part of a surgical oncology team, please join us this March 12–14, in Phoenix, Arizona, for the ACS Cancer Conference for 3 days of discussions on standards, quality, survivorship, and more.
Leadership & Advocacy Summit: If you are interested in learning about leadership and advocacy, join us in Washington, DC, this April for our 4-day Leadership & Advocacy Summit.
Leading in 2025
If you are already prepared to lead, nominations are open for many ACS leadership positions, including President-Elect, Secretary, First and Second Vice-Presidents-Elect and two Regental roles. See the call for nominations in this issue.
