George H. A. Clowes, Jr., MD, FACS, Memorial Research Career Development Award – Deadline: August 17
This award is offered through the generosity of The Clowes Fund, Inc., of Indianapolis, IN. Its purpose is to provide support for the research of a promising young surgical investigator. The award consists of a stipend of $45,000 for each of five years and is not renewable thereafter.
The award is restricted to a Fellow or Associate Fellow of the College who has completed an accredited residency in general surgery within the preceding seven years, not including time off for maternity leave, military deployment, or medical leave, and has received a full-time faculty appointment at a medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in the United States or by the Committee for Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools in Canada. The applicant’s academic appointment may not be above the level of assistant professor. Applicants should provide evidence (by publication or otherwise) of productive initial efforts in laboratory research.
For addition information about the award, please visit the George H. A. Clowes, Jr., MD, FACS, Memorial Research Career Development Award webpage.
As we’ve monitored the trajectory of COVID-19 cases and local restrictions in the conference’s host city of Chicago, across the U.S., and throughout the world, we’ve decided to hold the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2020 as an exclusively virtual event. Clinical Congress 2020 will be held October 4–7, and will be a little shorter than the traditional in-person event. This was not an easy decision to make, but your health, safety, and welfare are of the utmost importance to us. A virtual Clinical Congress will ensure broad participation for all those who want to attend, especially individuals whose institutions have travel bans in place throughout the fall. The virtual Clinical Congress will include a live component and on-demand components beyond the dates of the Clinical Congress. We are confident we can offer a best-in-class educational event for all attendees, presenters, and exhibitors. Clinical Congress is the largest educational meeting of surgeons in the world. Our program will focus on the latest advances in surgical science, practice, and education, united under this year’s theme of The Joys of Learning, Collaborating, and Giving Back. Please watch for future communications from the College about the virtual Clinical Congress 2020, particularly if you are one of the many surgeons who will be presenting at this year’s meeting. Visit the ACS website to stay up to date and read our Clinical Congress 2020 FAQs. We will share registration details and additional important program information shortly. You have our thoughts and best wishes as many of you resume a more active surgical practice during this unprecedented time. The ACS will continue to support you and be your advocate in the weeks and months ahead as you navigate challenging issues that have profoundly affected our profession and our patients. Valerie W. Rusch MD, FACS President, American College of Surgeons Beth H. Sutton, MD, FACS Chair, Board of Regents, American College of Surgeons L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS Vice-Chair, Board of Regents, American College of Surgeons David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS Executive Director, American College of Surgeons
As hospitals resume operations paused due to COVID-19, a new survey shows a majority of people are reluctant to undergo procedures and may not reschedule necessary surgical care while COVID-19 continues to circulate in communities.* To help surgeons and hospitals address patient concerns, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has released a new resource, Preparing to Have Surgery during the Time of COVID-19. A new toolkit from the ACS accompanies the release of a patient discussion guide to help you communicate with your patients about the steps your hospitals are taking to reduce the risk of COVID-19, and stresses that, when it comes to talking about COVID-19, surgeon-patient communication is a shared responsibility. The survey also found surgeons are the most influential voices for patients wondering whether their care will be safe. Personalized outreach, including phone calls, can ease fears and allow patients to ask you questions about what they can expect when they arrive at the hospital, ambulatory center, or your office. They want to hear directly from you, and no level of detail is too much in our current environment. Included in this toolkit are templates and resources to help you reach out to patients directly who may also have wanted to reach out to you but are not comfortable making that first phone call. Also included are resources for traditional and social media, and your hospital or practice website, including:
View and Download the Toolkit
Should you need assistance as you use these tools to facilitate patient communications, don’t hesitate to reach out to the ACS Integrated Communications team for assistance at covid19@facs.org. ACS wants to help you resume your practice, ensure your patients feel comfortable and receive timely care, and most important, ensure they avoid costly or even life-threatening delays in care. If we can provide more assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out. Additional COVID-19 tools and resources can also be found online at facs.org/COVID-19. _____ * Revive Health. "Consumer Survey Update COVID-19." Accessed May 26, 2020. Available at: https://go.thinkrevivehealth.com/covid-findings-report-3.
On Monday, June 1st, the SWPA Chapter of the American College of Surgeons met virtually to consider interesting case presentations by surgical residents from area training programs. Twelve cases were submitted and the top six were selected for discussion at the event. Dr. Kristin Krupa began the evening with a presentation of “A Case of a Large Bowel Obstruction Caused by a Gallstone.” Other presentations included “Delivering good news: a case of successful combined cesarean section and bowel resection for small bowel obstruction in the third trimester” presented by Katherine Hrebinko, MD, “Pneumopericardium in an otherwise healthy 24 year old male” presented by Kevin Train, MD, “Improvement of Liver Function Tests After Splenectomy in Patient with Schistosomiasis: A Case Review” presented by Peter Zak, MD, and “Complete Mesh Migration into the Small Bowel Following Parastomal Hernia Repair” presented by Waseem Lufti, MD.
Hillary Simon, DO was voted Most Interesting Case for her presentation on “A Bullet within the Pericardial Sac: To Remove or Not To Remove?” Congratulations to Dr. Simon and to all our presenters and special thanks to Chapter President Dr. Alan Murdock for moderating the evening’s event.
As part of its ongoing efforts to assist surgeons managing the intense financial burden placed upon them by the pandemic, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Practice Protection Committee has built upon the Practical Suggestions and Options to Consider section of its resource document to provide a guide to economic survival strategies. The document can be found here and includes a set of key principles and a suggested process for Fellows to undertake based on an Excel spreadsheet exercise of personal and business finances. In addition, the committee has provided suggestions to consider based on which of three specific scenarios they believe most accurately describes their financial situation.
May 2020 marks the second annual National STOP THE BLEED® Month, and May 21, 2020, marks the third annual National STOP THE BLEED® Day. This year, these observances will highlight the importance of STOP THE BLEED® knowledge, particularly because so many people are staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although STOP THE BLEED® classes are not currently being held due to COVID-19, it is still important for you to understand how to respond when a bleeding injury occurs. Traumatic injuries are known to spike during warmer months, and injuries can still occur, even when we’re at home. There may also be longer response times from emergency personnel due to a high number of COVID-19 patients. A person will have a better chance for survival if someone near them knows how to control serious bleeding.
Knowing how to use your hands, or something from home such as a t-shirt or towel, to apply pressure to a bleeding wound, how to pack a wound to control bleeding, and how to correctly apply a tourniquet can empower you to save a life. With a public that is empowered to STOP THE BLEED®, we can help each other by recognizing life-threatening bleeding and knowing how to intervene to reduce a preventable death from injury.
More Information
As many states have approved the resumption of elective surgery, we understand patients may have questions and specific uncertainties about the safety of undergoing elective operations in hospitals, regardless of whether COVID-19 patients are being concurrently treated in the same facility. The patient-surgeon relationship is one that is built on transparency and trust. More than ever, patients are turning to their surgeons for advice and information that will help them feel more knowledgeable not just about their surgery, but having that surgery in a time when COVID-19 exists. To address this, we developed the American College of Surgeons Post-COVID-19 Readiness Checklist for Resuming Surgery. The intent of this checklist is to help surgeons ultimately communicate the important items patients want to know. In the coming days, the College will provide a tool kit of materials to help you communicate with patients regarding how they can safely return for surgery they need. We will continue to support our surgical community and patients as we return to surgical care.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) are committed to providing members with the highest quality educational resources to support you in meeting your Continuing Medical Education (CME) requirements. Please visit the American College of Surgeons State CME Requirements page to review the Pennsylvania CME Requirements and to find relevant CME opportunities.
As the curve begins to flatten and hospitals and surgeons’ offices resume offering elective procedures, the COVID-19 Communications Committee has set its sights on new opportunities.
The Bulletin: ACS COVID-19 Updates has served the community of health care providers well during the acute phase of this pandemic. Going forward, the Bulletin: ACS COVID-19 Updates will evolve to a new e-newsletter, Bulletin Brief. This new weekly communications vehicle will continue to provide updates on important advances the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and other stakeholders are making to assist you in providing optimal care for the duration of the pandemic, but also will include the latest information on other ACS activities and news.
Bulletin Brief will replace this newsletter and the weekly ACS NewsScope that you traditionally have received on Thursday night. It will be distributed Tuesday nights and will combine all the elements of both newsletters in a reader-friendly and responsive format.
Read the complete update here
New patient registry is also now available to all hospitals willing to capture meaningful data about their COVID-19 patients
CHICAGO (April 17, 2020): Today, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) released a new surgical resource document, “Local Resumption of Elective Surgery Guidance,” as a guide for health care facilities preparing to resume elective surgery once the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has peaked in their area.
Health care facilities have been allocating their resources to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, ACS, and other organizations issued a mid-March call to curtail elective procedures in the midst of the rising pandemic. Since then, elective operations have been postponed or canceled, and many facilities are now looking ahead to prepare to safely resume these procedures for patients whose medical conditions warrant surgical treatment.
ACS recognizes that the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on local communities or facilities is a spectrum, and therefore suggests that facilities use the guidance document to ensure several pertinent issues have been considered before elective surgery begins. It’s important for facilities to first check compliance with their state's executive orders and regulations as well.
ACS offers a set of principles and issues to help local facilities plan for resumption of elective surgical care, and states in the document, “Understanding both the local facility capabilities (e.g. beds, testing, operating rooms) as well as potential constraints (e.g. workforce, supply chain), while keeping an eye on potential subsequent waves of COVID will continue to be important.”
Ten distinct issues—in four categories—are presented in the document that need to be addressed at the local level before elective surgery may be resumed safely:
The guidance document is available for free download here.
Although this document, “Local Resumption of Elective Surgery Guidance,” provides principles to help local facilities safely resume procedures after COVID-19 peaks locally, there is still much work to be done. While COVID-19 cases may have peaked in certain areas, the virus is still circulating and there is much we don’t know about the etiology and progression of the disease.
To address this problem, the ACS has developed the ACS COVID-19 Registry, which is now available to all hospitals willing to capture meaningful data about the COVID-19 patients they treat. The ACS has a long history of developing and maintaining clinical data registries, including decades of experience with data collection and improving patient care. The overarching priority of the ACS COVID-19 Registry is to collect meaningful patient data for a disease that is largely unknown. More information can be found here.
More information
Call or Fax Us Office: 412-321-50301 Fax: 412-321-5323
Address:713 Ridge AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15212-608
.jpg)
