SCC Program Director Survery Results

Grace Rozycki, MD, MBA and Ernest E. Moore, MD recently sent out a survey to SCC program directors to find out if they were considering an Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program and if not, why not.  The survey results were presented at the July 17th AAST Acute Care Surgery Committee meeting held in Chicago, IL.  See a presentation of the survey results.

History of Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program

Acute Care Surgery is a newly developed training fellowship and surgical practice paradigm. The initiative to develop this non-ACGME-fellowship began in March 2003, as the leadership of the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the Western Trauma Association met jointly to consider the problems of patient access to emergency surgical care and the future viability of trauma surgery as a career. Recognizing the immense and growing need for emergency and critical care surgical coverage, the goals of this and subsequent meetings were to redefine the training and practice of trauma surgery to make it a viable, attractive, and sustainable career, to keep trauma care a surgical specialty, and most importantly, to fill a need in the best interest of patient care.

According to a survey of the AAST membership, most trauma surgeons felt that the present practice paradigm of trauma care is not sustainable and that without changes, trauma surgeons will become extinct: trauma care will eventually be relegated to emergency physicians, anesthesiologists, medical hospitalists, or critical care internists, with multiple consultations for specific surgical procedures. As a result, a working group was formed within the AAST to develop a surgical training curriculum that can meet the needs of future surgical trainees and their anticipated practice preferences. Perhaps most importantly, the training curriculum is designed to respond to a growing shortage of on-call surgeons and surgical intensivists to meet patient care needs.

The work of the AAST Committee on Acute Care Surgery led to a proposal to create a new specialty of surgical training and practice. This specialty requires broad training in elective and emergency general surgery, trauma surgery, and surgical critical care. What follows is curriculum and training requirements for this new specialty.

The power point slide presentations listed below give an overview of the process, the curriculum, timeline, beta site selection and outcomes. Additional information will be put up on this section as it becomes available.

Powerpoints:

• Acute Care Surgery Annual Report - 2007
• Acute Care Surgery - Nuts and Bolts 2007
• Jurkovich ACS Committee Report - 2006

References

1. Acute Care Surgery: Trauma, Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery. A report from the Committee to Develop the Reorganized Specialty of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery. J Trauma 58(3): 614-616, 2005.
2. Esposito TJ, Leon L, Jurkovich GJ: The shape of things to come: results from a national survey of trauma surgeons on issues concerning their future. (presented, AAST September 2005). J Trauma 60(1): 8-16, 2006.
3. The Committee on Acute Care Surgery of the AAST: The Acute Care Surgery Curriculum. J Trauma 62(3): 553-556, 2007.