Surgery News - August 2007 - (Page 10)

SURGERY NEWS • A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 NEWS FROM THE COLLEGE Surgical Workforce Statement Issued he following statement was developed by the ACS Health Policy Steering Committee and was approved by the Board of Regents at its June 2007 meeting. The American College of Surgeons is concerned that access to surgical care is eroding in many U.S. communities. An aging population, unstable practice environment, geographic differences in the liability climate, changing lifestyle expectations, technological changes, and an increasing tendency toward subspecialization are combining to produce surgical workforce shortages. This problem is most evident and widespread in rural areas and in our nation’s trauma centers and emergency departments, as noted in the Institute of Medicine’s 2006 reports on the future of emergency care. In- T creasingly, urban and suburban communities are facing shortages as well. Much attention has been focused recently on a declining physician-to-population ratio in the U.S. that will accelerate as the baby boom generation ages. Although policymakers have devoted considerable discussion to developing solutions for a predicted shortage of generalists, little attention has been devoted to surgical workforce limitations. Notably, the number of surgeons being produced by our graduate medical education system has remained stable for nearly 30 years. In general surgery, for example, the ratio of surgeons-to-population has been declining steadily since 1985. In other specialties, where the supply is limited to only a few thousand, surgeons are finding that they are unable to meet community demands for their services. Furthermore, there is evidence that many surgeons have narrowed their practices to include only outpatient care, whereas others have subspecialized to the point where they no longer feel qualified to serve on emergency call panels. In addition, relatively few women choose surgery as a career, which is especially troubling now that more than half of medical school enrollees are women. The American College of Surgeons supports measures to ensure access to surgical specialty care. More specifically, the College believes the federal government should do the following: Develop national self-sufficiency in the production of physicians, surgeons, and other health professionals through a well-planned expansion of U.S. med- ical school graduates and residencies. Provide full federal support for needed specialties with long training requirements. Remove the caps that were imposed by the Balanced Budget Act on the number of residents eligible for federal support at each training institution under Medicare. Expand programs of support for rural physicians to include surgical specialties. Provide financial support for specialists who provide safety net services for uninsured patients in our nation’s trauma centers and emergency departments. Take steps to ensure a less hostile practice environment, such as realistically addressing the nation’s liability issues. ■ trainees, and surgeon-educators can now turn to “Ethical Issues in Clinical Surgery” for examples of the ethical underpinnings of clinical practice and ways to address the ethics issues and questions they face every day in caring for their patients. Developed and sponsored by the College’s Committee on Ethics and edited by Mary H. McGrath, M.D., FACS, this case-based educational resource is intended to be the basis for developing bioethics programs at the local level and will enable learners to discuss important ethical principles as they relate to surgical care. Each chapter features realistic surgery-based cases, discussion questions, analyses of cases and questions, the bioethics bottom line, suggested reading, learning objectives, a glossary, and additional resources. The 150-page softbound book, which is designed for course instructors and individual practicing surgeons, includes special analyses sections as well as additional discussion questions and resources. A companion 80-page spiral-bound manual has been designed for use with residents. CME credit will be available to learners who read the chapters, consider the discussion questions, and complete an online test. Visit www.facsl.org/education/ ethicalissuesinclinicalsurgery.html or call 312-202-5335 for more information. ■ P Book Presents College Announces Japanese, German Case-Based Exchange Travelers for 2007 His German The German centers. The Ethical Issues The Internacounterpart, Surgical Society Japanese extional RelaRobert Gruetzand the ACS Gerchange traveler, tions Committee racticing surgeons, surgical Yuko Kijima, has established an M.D., Ph.D., of exchange proKagoshima Unigram with the versity, has been Japan Surgical Soselected to attend ciety and the ACS the College’s Japan Chapter. Clinical Congress Earlier this year, YUKO KIJIMA, in New Orleans in Luis A. FernanM.D., PH.D. October. She will dez, M.D., FACS, give a presentation, and will a transplant surgeon at the tour several surgical instituUniversity of Wisconsin– tions in North America. Madison Medical School, atDr. Kijima specializes in tended the annual meeting of the Japan Surgical Society surgical oncology and breast reconstruction. and visited Japanese surgical mann, M.D., many Chapter Ph.D., of the Unihave also develversity of Dresoped a similar exden, will attend change program the ACS Clinical with the College. Congress and will ACS Fellow Mark choose several A. Carlson, M.D., ROBERT GRUETZMANN, surgical sites to FACS, a general M.D., PH.D. visit with the surgeon at University of Nebraska, Omaha, at- guidance of his mentors at home and in the U.S. Dr. tended the German Surgical Gruetzmann specializes in Society’s annual meeting in surgical oncology and reMunich in May 2007 and searches pancreatic cancer then visited surgical sites and its genetics. around Germany. ■ Trauma Papers Sought for 2008 Competition Register Online for the 2007 Clinical Congress remier hands-on learning. Leading-edge surgical research. Exceptional peer access. These are the hallmarks of the ACS Clinical Congress. “The Role of a Mentor in Creating a Surgical Way of Life” is the theme for this year’s Clinical Congress, which will be held Oct. 7-11, 2007, in New Orleans. Programs are designed to advance your quest to achieve the best clinical outcomes. Regardless of your specialty area, you will find unique programs among the lectures, postgraduate courses, panels, Surgical Forum sessions, specialty and multidisciplinary sessions, and video-based education sessions. Detailed Clinical Congress program information, including registration and housing, can be found on the ACS Web site at www.facs.org/clincon2007/ index.html. To register, go to www.facs.org/ clincon2007/registration/registration.html; for hotel reservations, go to www.facs.org/clincon2007/ hotel/housing.html. ■ G eneral surgical residents, surgical specialty residents, and trauma fellows are invited to submit papers for the 2008 Resident Trauma Papers Competition, which will be held during annual meeting of the Committee on Trauma. The meeting will take place March 13-15, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Papers should describe the individual’s original research in the area of trauma care and/or prevention, categorized as basic laboratory research or clinical investigation. Papers should be sent to the appropriate ACS state/provin- cial chair. The list of chairs’ names can be found at www.facs.org/trauma/ regional.html. The papers competition has been funded by the Eastern and Western States COTs, Region 7 COTs, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and the ACS. Deadline for submission of papers to the region chief is Nov. 14, 2007. More information is available by visiting www.facs.org/trauma/ traumapapers.html or contacting Bridget Blackwood, ACS Trauma Programs Coordinator, at bblackwood@facs.org; 312-202-5380. ■ P http://www.facs.org/trauma/regional.html http://www.facs.org/trauma/traumapapers.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/index.html http://www.facs.org/trauma/traumapapers.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/index.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/registration/registration.html http://www.facsl.org/education/ethicalissuesinclinicalsurgery.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/registration/registration.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/hotel/housing.html http://www.facs.org/clincon2007/hotel/housing.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Surgery News - August 2007

Contents Drug Developments News From the College Thoracic Surgery Head & Neck Surgery

Surgery News - August 2007

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