The path to becoming an academic surgeon is long and arduous. Years of intense study during undergraduate and medical school, followed by a 5-7 year residency and frequently fellowship training lead to a path that sets our profession apart from most others. While the volume of knowledge and experience gained during these formative years is […]
The Academic Surgeon - Official Blog of the AAS
The Academic Surgeon is the official blog of the AAS. We post anywhere from one to three times a week and our contributors will focus on issues relevant to young academic surgeons, residents, fellows, and even medical students.
If you would like to contribute, please submit your post here: https://www.aasurg.org/the-academic-surgeon-blog-submission/
Scope of Practice for Volunteer Surgeons in Developing Countries
In an editorial in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2006, Dr. O. Gordon Robinson, Jr. writes about an unsettling experience he had with a colleague. This colleague asked if he could observe a cleft lip procedure. When asked why, he replied that he wanted to know how to do this procedure, as […]
“Lean in”: Applicable to Women in Academic Surgery?
The gender gap in the upper echelons of academic surgery is well recognized. Many factors likely contribute to the discrepancies between the proportions of women in surgical residency, junior academic positions, and leadership positions. One of these factors is the believed to be that women do not know how to negotiate. There is a vast […]
CALL FOR INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATIVES – Deadline October 1, 2014
The AAS Membership Committee is seeking self-nominations for the new position of INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATIVE. We are looking for 1 representative from each academic Department of Surgery to serve as a liaison to the AAS. Please submit a one-paragraph statement regarding your interest in the program and qualifications for the position by October 1, 2014. DESCRIPTION: […]
The AAS Global Affairs Committee
The Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) in San Diego, California in February 2014 was a fantastic conference that was attended by over 800 members, with more than 75 international members. The growth and participation of both domestic academic global surgeons and the AAS international membership has steadily increased and influenced the dynamics of the program and […]
Metrics, Money and Mentoring: How Resident Education is Taking the Brunt of Increased Pressure on Academic Faculty (and Can Leaders Re-Balance the Scales?)
There are 2 truisms about residents in training, compared to their faculty: 1) they are generally slower, and 2) they generally make more mistakes. But a third fact of resident education trumps the first two—it is the responsibility of academic surgery to graduate safe, competent general surgeons who can independently take care of patients. Thirty […]
The American Board of Surgery
Dear Fellow Members of the AAS, It is my privilege to represent our organization at the American Board of Surgery (ABS). As many of you are aware, the major function of the ABS is to help protect the American public by providing an independent, nonprofit organization to provide board certification to surgeons who have met […]
A Fellow’s Surgical Rotation in Bolivia: An Incredible Learning Experience
It’s been several weeks now and I am starting to get reaccustomed to the sparkling floors, giant-sized beds with a million buttons, T.V. sets in the ICU rooms and the ease of ordering labs, imaging studies and simply transfusing blood products without a family member to donate. But I am back. After all, this is […]
The 2014 AAS Fall Courses are quickly approaching!
An academic surgical career demands excellence in the areas of clinical practice, research and education. Piloting this challenge can be intimidating and stressful; it requires preparation along with a certain degree of compromise and balance. It is also exhilarating and rewarding. Both the Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course and the Career Development Course have annually […]
Is the Hippocratic Oath Outdated?
A recent editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports on the proceedings of The Institute of Medicine’s Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education Workshop. The insights developed from this group of 59 members highlighted the need for a social contract between health care professionals and society. A social contract […]