The Academic Surgeon - Official Blog of the AAS

Leadership skills development is key to professional growth.  Though not a specific competency expected of general surgery residents, we all expect our trainees to grown into team leaders over the course of training.  In the General Surgery Milestones, leadership is not a specific category, but to achieve the highest competency, the trainee “assumes overall leadership […]

Chris was dying when I first met him. He had been shot a few minutes before and was now in the trauma bay bleeding to death. I was the trauma surgeon on call; I operated on him. He had an iliac artery and colon injury. We repaired the artery and resected the colon, forming an […]

“What’s the difference between God and a surgeon? God doesn’t think He’s a surgeon.”1 Jokes like these are very commonplace; they poke fun at the notion that surgeons are arrogant, overconfident, and mean. As a fourth year medical student going into general surgery, I have been told by my classmates, residents, and attendings that I […]

Spring is a time for cleaning. Many of us will find the time in the Spring season to declutter our closets, deep clean our homes, or freshen up our gardens. We toss out, re-cycle or donate items that are worn out, not useful, not serving a purpose, or not bringing us joy. But sometimes it […]

Anyone who has travelled to another country knows that language holds great insight into how a culture views the world. The words we choose provide understanding into how we view the complexities of our society. There are many words we use to categorize countries.  Ways that we make clear that not all countries have the […]

The prototypical international surgery experience is the short-term surgical mission (STSM). The transient nature of STSM attracts volunteers who can afford to spend limited time away from careers, families, and other responsibilities. However, the temporary care and support provided avails the organizations running these missions to criticism. Continually, several questions go unanswered: what happens when […]

It is that time of year again… the time to give thought to the question, “Are you going into the lab?” Finding a research opportunity or lab has been discussed previously in this forum and is often coupled with discussions on mentorship. Traditionally, taking time to do research has involved joining a faculty member’s basic […]

Attention Early Career Vascular and Orthopedic Surgeons Funding Available for  Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) Courses & Meeting Apply to receive free registration to the: AAS Fall Courses – “29 th Annual Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course & 14th Annual Early Career Development Course” October 20, 2018 in Boston, MA and   2019 Academic Surgical Congress February 5-7, 2019 in […]

Surgery is one of the vital components of the global health, as the president of the World Bank said, “Surgery is an indivisible, indispensable part of health care and of progress towards universal health coverage” (Kim, 2014). Global surgical research is one of the major aspects that play an important role in improving the surgical […]

The American College of Surgeons announces the following research awards for U.S. and Canadian members: George H.A. Clowes, Jr., MD, FACS Memorial Research Career Development Award Five-year scholarship providing $45,000 per year in support of the research of a promising young general surgeon.  K08 or K23 NIH track candidates preferred. http://www.facs.org/memberservices/acsclowes.html Application deadline 1 August […]