American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913[1] to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.

Contents

Membership

Members of the American College of Surgeons are referred to as "Fellows." The letters FACS (Fellow, American College of Surgeons) after a surgeon's name mean that the surgeon's education and training, professional qualifications, surgical competence, and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation, and have been found to be consistent with the high standards established and demanded by the College.

The American College of Surgeons also has membership categories for Associate Fellows (provides an opportunity for surgeons who are beginning surgical practice and who meet specific requirements to assume an active role in the College at an early stage in their careers), surgical residents, medical students, and allied health care professionals who are not surgeons, but who interact with surgical patients.

As of 2008, total membership was over 75,000 including more than 4,000 members from outside the US and Canada, and more than 2,600 Associate Fellows. Fellows of the College are organized into 100 chapters. There are 65 chapters in the United States, 2 in Canada, 3 in Mexico, and 30 in other countries around the world.

The ACS elected its first black Fellow, Dr Louis T. Wright, in 1934.[2]

Major Activities of the College

Publications

Fictional portrayals

Drs. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) and Joe Early (Bobby Troup) on the popular 1970s television series Emergency! were both listed as being Fellows of the American College of Surgeons.

In the season eight M*A*S*H episode "Stars and Stripes", Drs. B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) and Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers) are selected to write a paper for the College describing their efforts saving a soldier's life.

See also

Citations

  1. ^ American College of Surgeons Online - "What is the American College of Surgeons?"
  2. ^ Medicine: Negro Fellow. Time Magazine, 29th October 1934. [1]

External links