Chapter news

Keystone Chapter offers Surgical Jeopardy at annual meeting

Pennsylvania’s Keystone Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) hosted its Annual Scientific Meeting November 18, 2016, at the Henry Hood Center for Health Research on the campus of Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA. Approximately 100 Fellows, residents, medical students, and other health care professionals were in attendance for a full day of educational seminars presented by experts in the surgical field.

A total of 12 residents presented their abstracts at the meeting, and 20 additional residents had their abstract posters reviewed and judged at the event. The first-place oral presentation was presented by Kathryn Jaap, MD, and second place was awarded to Enobong Efiong, MD, both residents at Geisinger Medical Center. The winning poster was submitted by Nina Neuhaus, MD, and the second-place poster was submitted by Michael Eerhart, MD, both residents at Geisinger as well.

The chapter also presented its annual Surgical Jeopardy competition at the annual meeting. Resident teams that competed for the coveted trophy this year were from Geisinger Medical Center; Penn State Medical Center, Hershey; Reading Hospital; and St. Luke’s University Hospital, Bethlehem. Christopher Coppola, MD, FACS, Past-President of the chapter, emceed the event, and Council members David Arbutina, MD, FACS; Joseph Bannon, MD, FACS; and Mary J. Reed, MD, FACS, served as judges. At the end of the lightning round, the team of Melissa Linskey, MD, and Audrey Kulaylat, MD, from Penn State Medical Center were victorious.

The 2017–2019 Keystone Chapter Officers also were elected at the meeting. They are as follows: Joseph Blansfield, MD, FACS, Geisinger Medical Center, President; Christopher Buzas, DO, FACS, Geisinger Medical Center, President-Elect; and Paul Brown, MD, FACS, Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeons of Lancaster, Secretary/Treasurer. Two Regional Councilors were elected to a three-year term: Edwin Shearburn III, MD, FACS, Grand View Surgical Associates, Sellersville; and Joseph Bannon, MD, FACS, Geisinger Medical Center.

Planning for the next Annual Scientific Meeting is under way and the meeting is scheduled for November 17, 2017, at the Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown.

Hockey Hall of Famer addresses Brooklyn-Long Island Chapter

Pat LaFontaine, National Hockey League Hall of Famer, and Sara Morse, Manager, Legislative and Political Affairs, ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, spoke at the combined Brooklyn-Long Island Chapter and the Nassau Surgical Society 2016 Annual Clinic Day, December 7, in Uniondale, NY. More than 500 health care professionals attended the meeting, which featured educational programs for 11 specialties. The combined educational program included many renowned speakers in each specialty from across the U.S. The event included a resident Surgical Jeopardy competition and an abstract poster presentation; in all, residents submitted 73 posters for evaluation, with the top poster from each specialty receiving an award.

The joint efforts of the local surgical society and the Brooklyn-Long Island Chapter have greatly expanded and improved the annual meeting over the last 14 years.

Connecticut Chapter hosts 49th Annual Meeting

The Connecticut Chapter of the ACS hosted its 49th Annual Meeting October 28 at the Marriott Hotel in Farmington, CT. The Connecticut Surgical Quality Collaborative (CtSQC) and the Connecticut Chapter of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (CTASMBS) cohosted the event, marking the first time all three societies have partnered. ACS Regent Lenworth M. Jacobs, Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, presented the Foster Memorial Lecture on the Hartford Consensus, which played an integral role in launching the ACS and National Security Council’s Stop the Bleed program.

The meeting opened with a talk by noted blogger, The Skeptical Scalpel, a retired ACS Fellow who prefers to remain anonymous, who provided a practical and enlightening talk on the use of social media by surgeons and surgical residents. Adil Haider, MD, MPH, FACS, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, gave the keynote address, Enhancing our Cultural Dexterity: The Next Steps in Reducing Disparities and Providing Patient-Centered Surgical Care.

The Connecticut Chapter presented its Distinguished Service Award to Scott Ellner, DO, FACS, in recognition of his work to expand quality programs in Connecticut, including co-founding the CtSQC. The chapter presented the Legislator of the Year Award to the Honorable Nancy Wyman, Lieutenant Governor, State of Connecticut, in recognition of her career-long support of Connecticut’s physicians and health care system.

In addition, the chapter presented resident paper competitions in general surgery, trauma, clinical oncology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, specialty surgery, ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP^®) and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), and bariatric surgery. First-place papers are as follows:

• John D. MacArthur Trauma Competition: Michael P. DeWane, MD, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven: Prolonged Postoperative Ventilation Is Associated with VTE Development in the Critically Ill Emergency General Surgery Population
• Clinical Oncology Competition: Jennifer L. Hubbard, MD, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Waterbury: Correlation of Breast Density with Breast Cancer Prognosis
• General surgery (two sections): Section 1, Rachel B. Scott, DO, Danbury Hospital: Giant Inguinoscrotal Hernia: A Case Report of Progressive Preoperative Pneumoperitoneum Using an Implanted Vascular Access Catheter with Subcutaneous Reservoir and Open Preperitoneal Mesh Repair; Section 2, Jeremy Carroll, BS, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington: Characterization of Human Esophageal Epithelial Cells Before and After Conditional Reprogramming: A Novel Approach to Autologous Stem Cell Tissue Engineering
• Surgical specialties: Charles R. Litchfield, MD, Saint Mary’s Hospital: Experience with a Novel Fibrin Sealant Patch in Patients Undergoing Non-Clamped Open Partial Nephrectomy
• Plastic surgery: Samuel Kim, MD, Yale Medical School, Mutational Profile of Benign Vascular Tumors—The Yale Experience
• Quality, ERAS and NSQIP: Gopi Ukani, MD, Saint Mary’s Hospital: Antibiogram-Driven Antibiotic Selection Supersedes National Guidelines in Prevention of Surgical Site Infections
• Bariatric surgery: Rachel B. Scott, DO, Danbury Hospital: Microlaparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy Is Safe in the Community Setting: A Single Surgeon’s Experience

The chapter also held its Eighth Annual Surgical Skills Competition. Eight residency programs competed, including the obstetrics-gynecology residency program from St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, which made its debut this year. Each team was composed of an intern, a mid-level, and a chief. Stations were scored based on skill level, technique, and time to completion. This unique partnership with industry, created by the Connecticut Chapter, is a teaching tool that uses game theory to challenge the skills taught in residency training. The residents from Saint Mary’s Hospital won first prize and were awarded surgical textbooks relevant to their training.

Massachusetts Chapter holds 63rd Annual Meeting

The Massachusetts Chapter hosted its annual meeting December 3, 2016, with a record number (157) of health care professionals attending. The meeting opened with two Oral Resident Research Paper Competitions. The winners were Kelsey Han of Massachusetts General Hospital for The Surgeon As the Second Victim: Results of the BISA Study; and Alexander Munoz of Massachusetts General Hospital, who won the fourth Joseph E. Murray [MD, FACS] Award for Modulation of Intestinal Epithelial and Microbiotal Homeostasis with Exercise in a Colitis Model. Other session highlights included a panel on safety for surgeons and talks on surgeon burnout, helping colleagues in trouble, among others.

Throughout the morning, attendees had opportunities to visit the poster hall to speak with authors about their work. Two residents received Resident Research Awards for their posters, as follows:

• Moshe Lapidot, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, for Highly Effective Heparanase-Based Therapy for Mesothelioma
• Rebecca Scully, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for Maternity Leave, Financial Pressure and Career Dissatisfaction among Procedural Specialties

The Massachusetts Chapter offered awards from the ACS Commission on Cancer to Mark Fairweather, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital for Surgery, for Metastatic GIST on Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy: A Multicenter Analysis; and Parisa Kamali, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, for Medial Row Perforators Are Associated with Higher Rates of Fat Necrosis in Bilateral DIEP Breast Reconstruction. An honorable mention went to Gina Mody, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for Outcomes of Resection of Superior Sulcus Tumors after High Dose Neoadjuvant Radiation Therapy; and to Bao Ngoc N. Tran, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for Readability, Complexity, Suitability Comparative Analysis of Mastectomy versus Lumpectomy. The chapter also congratulates the ACS Committee on Trauma Resident Paper Competition award winners: Elizabeth Lilley, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for clinical research; and Praveen Sridhar, MD, Boston Medical Center, for basic science research.

The meeting concluded with the sixth Annual Resident Top Gun Competition. For this contest, surgical residents from participating institutions throughout Massachusetts were invited to showcase their laparoscopic skills. A total of 10 teams competed, each with three residents. They were judged on a series of tasks requiring laparoscopic skills, such as intra-corporeal knot tying, transferring of objects from one hand to another, and pattern cutting. The winner of the coveted Top Gun trophy was the team from the Boston Medical Center, led by Brian J. Carmine, MD, FACS, with residents Scott Levin, MD; Olga Beresnova, MD; and Matt Brady, MD.

Italy Chapter

The Italy Chapter of the ACS recently partnered with the Association of Italian Surgeons in North America (AISNA) to facilitate cultural and professional exchanges among Italian and North American institutions. These exchanges are intended to be bi-directional for Italian medical students, residents, and surgeons who want to visit the U.S. for research projects, and for AISNA members who would like to visit Italian health care institutions.

AISNA was established in 2012 with the main purpose of creating a network of surgeons who graduated from Italian medical schools and now practice in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The association, which is composed of Fellows of the ACS, met with the Secretary-Treasurer of the Italy Chapter, Giuseppe Nigri, MD, FACS, at Clinical Congress in Washington, DC.

France Chapter

A joint French Chapter/Association Française de Chirurgie session took place in Paris, France, during the 118ème Congrès Français de Chirurgie, September 29, 2016, and was organized by Eric Voiglio, MD, FACS, and Olivier Monneuse, MD, FACS.

A roundtable discussion titled How to Travel from France to the USA As a Resident or As a Fellow took place during the session and featured presentations from Douglas Slakey, MD, FACS, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA; Steven DeMeester MD, FACS, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Guillaume Passot, MD, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.

In addition to the roundtable, three papers selected from the ACS Committee on Trauma Resident Trauma Papers Competition were presented.