 |
| ASCRS achieves ACCME six-year Accreditation with Commendation for Third time in a row |
| President's Message: We will meet the challenge
|
DC&R launches iPad app; Impact Factor rises to 3,132 |
Dr. Alan Thorson elected ASCRS President; Dr. Michael Stamos chosen President-elect |
| San Antonio Annual Meeting draws record 1,519 physicians from 63 nations |
| Research Foundation “Meet the Challenge” raises $87,795 in San Antonio |
Second COSATS pilot project held Sept. 22-23 at Northwestern University, Chicago |
| Presidential Address: Outgoing President Dr. Steven Wexner shows how global collaboration enhances patient care |
| 11 Boards, including ABCRS, report publicly whether doctors meet MOC requirements |
| 2012 ASCRS National Media Awards |
| Awards honor accomplishments, papers, presentations, posters, video |
| ACS/Brandeis health policy scholarship “valuable and useful experience,” Dr. Neil Hyman reports |
| Great Comebacks® honors Joanna Burgess, RN, Harriet Pilert, RN |
| ASCRS Premier Partners |
| ASCRS Committee Chairs, 2012-13 |
| ASCRS welcomes new Fellows, Members, Candidates |
| Call for abstracts, 2013 Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, April 27-May 1 |
| Dr. James Guthrie, Past President of ASCRS Research Foundation, dies at 81 |
| Dr. Patrick Hagihara, survivor of Hiroshima atomic attack, accomplished endoscopist, colorectal surgeon, dies at 79 |
| Executive Council sanctions dual presentations at ASCRS, DDW |
|
|
| ASCRS achieves ACCME Accreditation with Commendation for third time in a row |
 |
For the third time in a row, ASCRS has achieved Accreditation with Commendation, a six-year term, from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).
“This is the highest, most prestigious level of recognition from ACCME and the result of many working in unison for the benefit of our members and patients,” said ASCRS President Dr. Alan Thorson, Omaha, NE.
Read more . . . |
|
President’s Message: We will meet the challenge
|
By Dr. Alan G. Thorson
We begin a new ASCRS year on a high note, with the overwhelming success of the San Antonio Annual Meeting. Drs. Dana Sands and David Maron and the Program Committee have again raised the bar, giving us a challenge for the 2013 Annual Meeting, to be held in Phoenix, AZ, April 27-May 1. Dr. Stephen Sentovich along with vice-chairs Drs. Jen Beaty and Scott Nelson and the Program Committee will strive to meet that challenge.
Read more . . . |
 |
Dr. Alan Thorson |
|
|
|
| DC&R launches iPad app; Impact Factor rises to record 3,132 |
|
The Society’s journal, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum (DC&R), launched its iPad app in February 2012. The app is available free at the iTunes store, and using it ASCRS members can download the complete journal free of charge to their iPads. “With the increasing popularity of portable electronic media, our new app makes the Journal instantly available any time a subscriber wants to read it,” Editor-in-Chief Dr. Robert D. Madoff, Minneapolis, MN reports.
“The app has been downloaded over 5,700 times in the six months since its introduction. A survery of our readership shows extremely high satisfaction with user friendliness, visual display, ease of finding content and navigability,” he says.
Read more . . . |
|
Dr. Alan Thorson elected ASCRS President;
Dr. Michael Stamos chosen President-elect |
Dr. Alan G. Thorson, Omaha, NE, was elected President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) at the Society’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, succeeding Dr. Steven D. Wexner, Weston, FL.
Other new officers and members elected to serve on the organization’s governing Executive Council are:
- Dr. Michael J. Stamos, President-elect
- Dr. Juan J. Nogueras, Vice President
- Dr. Charles E. Littlejohn, Secretary
- Dr. Terry C. Hicks, Treasurer
Read more . . . |
 |
Dr. Alan Thorson |
|
|
| San Antonio Annual Meeting draws record 1,519 physicians from 63 nations |
 |
2012 Annual Meeting |
|
|
The Society’s 113th annual meeting, held June 2 - 6, in San Antonio, Texas, drew record attendance of 1,519 physicians, representing 63 countries. Total meeting attendance exceeded 2,600. It was the largest ASCRS Annual Meeting attendance, except for tripartite meetings.
“It was awesome—an overwhelming success,” says Dr. Dana R. Sands, Weston, FL, Annual Meeting Program Chair. “There were 223 invited faculty with a large national and international representation of key opinion leaders. The overall theme focused on improving patient outcomes through international collaboration to develop new surgical techniques and technologies,” she adds.
Read more . . . |
|
Research Foundation “Meet the Challenge” raises $87,795 in San Antonio |
The Research Foundation raised $87,795 during the 8th annual “Meet the Challenge” program, held during the opening reception of the annual meeting in San Antonio, surpassing its goal by more than $15,000.
Four industry partners—Covidien, Gore & Associates, novoGI Inc., and Sanofi Biosurgery—and ten Regional Colon and Rectal Society partners agreed to pledge a total of $36,250 for the 2012 fundraiser. The goal was for ASCRS members to match that amount, thereby raising $72,500 to support Research Foundation grants and awards.
Read more . . . |
|
|
| Second COSATS pilot project held Sept. 22-23 at Northwestern University, Chicago |
 |
Dr. Patricia Roberts |
|
By Dr. Patricia L. Roberts, Chair
Operative Competency Evaluation Committee
The Operative Competency Evaluation Committee of the ASCRS is in the process of moving forward with the second pilot project of the Colorectal Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (COSATS).
The COSATS is a performance based technical skills exam specific to the practice of colorectal surgery. The initial pilot held at the University of Toronto, demonstrated that the COSATS has the ability to discriminate between the performance of . . .
Read more . . . |
|
Presidential Address:
Outgoing President Dr. Steven Wexner shows how global collaboration enhances patient care |
Outgoing ASCRS President Dr. Steven D. Wexner’s Presidential Address featured a virtuoso review of the medical history of treatment of anal fistulas and other colon and rectal diseases, beginning when “Hippocrates described the use of setons two and half millennia ago.”
Dr. Wexner’s main topic was the “global collaboration that enhances the mission of this Society and, ultimately, the care of our patients,” and the address included a paean to the Society’s important work and achievements and its value to surgery and practice.
Read more . . . |
 |
Dr. Steven Wexner |
|
|
|
11 Boards, including ABCRS, report publicly whether doctors meet MOC requirements |
|
Eleven member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), including the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery (ABCRS), have joined seven other member boards in reporting publicly whether the doctors they certify are meeting ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (ABMS MOC®) requirements.
Read more . . . |
|
2012 ASCRS National Media Awards |
 |
Andrew Spiegel |
|
Andrew Spiegel, Chief Executive Officer of the Colon Cancer Alliance (CCA) and one of the world’s leading advocates on behalf of colorectal cancer patients, received the 2012 David Jagelman MD Award for Advocacy in Colorectal Cancer at the Society’s San Antonio Annual Meeting and a 2012 National Media Award honored Angie’s List Magazine, Indianapolis, IN, “for stories published throughout 2011 promoting colon health awareness.”
Other 2012 ASCRS National Media Awards went to . . .
Read more . . . |
|
Awards honor accomplishments, papers, presentations, posters, video |
ASCRS honored many outstanding accomplishments and announced the award of traveling and international fellowships during the Annual Meeting in San Antonio. Presentation of special awards and awards for best podium presentations, best posters, impact paper published in Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, and best video were among the meeting’s highlights.
Following is a summary of major awards and fellowships.
Read more . . . |
|
|
ACS/Brandeis health policy scholarship “valuable and useful experience,” Dr. Neil Hyman reports |
 |
Dr. Neil Hyman |
|
In his summary report, Dr. Neil H. Hyman, Burlington, VT, the Society’s American College of Surgeons/Brandeis University health policy scholarship winner for 2011-2012, offers some very positive impressions of the value of the experience, excerpted here:
“The Leadership Program in Health Policy and Management Course was held at the Heller School at Brandeis University from May 20-26, 2012. This is a rigorous program that provides a foundation for the tool kit of competencies required for leadership in the evolving world of modern healthcare.
Read more . . . |
|
Great Comebacks® honors Joanna Burgess, RN, Harriet Pilert, RN |
The Great Comebacks® Program named Joanna Burgess, RN, CWOCN, its 2012 National Award Winner, and has given Harriet Pilert, RN, MS, CWOCN, its 2012 Wound, Ostomy and Continence (WOC) Nurse Great Comebacks® Award. Both presentations were made at the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses (WOCN) Society’s 44th Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC.
The National Award is given to an ostomy patient, and Burgess, of Apex, NC, was a patient long before she became a nurse. At age 3, she was diagnosed with a rare type of bladder cancer . . .
Read more . . . |
 |
Great Comebacks® |
|
|
|
ASCRS Premier Partners |
|
The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons recognizes the indispensable role that health care companies play in helping the Society maintain its focus on colorectal surgery and enhance the care its members provide to patients. ASCRS thanks the following companies for their generous support of this year’s Annual Scientific Meeting . . .
Read more . . . |
|
ASCRS Committee Chairs, 2012-13 |
Awards Committee – James Yoo, MD, Chair
Bylaws Committee – Michael Snyder, MD, Chair
Continuing Education Committee – Judith Trudel, MD, Chair
CREST Committee – Scott Steele, MD, Chair
Finance and Management Committee – Terry Hicks, MD, Chair
History of ASCRS Committee – Richard Billingham, MD, Chair
Hospitality Committee – Sharon Beck, Chair
Read more . . . |
|
ASCRS welcomes new Fellows, Members, Candidates |
The ASCRS welcomed seven International Fellows, 46 Fellows, 59 Members, seven Allied Health professionals, and 50 Candidates to the Society during its 2012 annual business meeting. They are . . .
Read more . . . |
|
Call for abstracts, 2013 Annual Meeting,
Phoenix, Arizona,
April 27-May 1 |
Online submission of abstracts for the 2013 ASCRS Annual Meeting is now open and closes November 12 at www.fascrs.org.
The Annual Meeting will be held April 27-May 1 in Phoenix, AZ, Phoenix Convention Center and Sheraton Phoenix Hotel.
Read more . . . |
 |
|
Dr. James Guthrie, Past President of ASCRS Research Foundation, dies at 81 |
 |
Dr. James Guthrie |
|
Dr. James F. Guthrie, of Norwalk, CT, who along with Dr. Patrick Mazier, was instrumental in revitalizing the ASCRS Research Foundation, which he led as President from 1992-1995, died June 8, less than four months after the death of his wife, Sandra Durkin Guthrie, an active Research Foundation volunteer. Dr. Guthrie was 81.
Read more . . . |
|
Dr. Patrick Hagihara, survivor of Hiroshima atomic attack, accomplished endoscopist, colorectal surgeon, dies at 79 |
Dr. Stanley Goldberg will never forget Dr. Patrick F. Hagihara’s chilling first-person account of the atomic bomb hitting Hiroshima in August 1945: “There was a shadow on one side of me, and an instant later a shadow on the other side.”
Dr. Hagihara survived the bomb attack and went on to become one of the world’s most accomplished endoscopists and colorectal surgeons, performing more than 5,000 colonoscopies without a single perforation. He was a longtime ASCRS member . . .
Read more . . . |
 |
Dr. Patrick Hagihara |
|
|
|
Executive Council sanctions dual presentations at ASCRS, DDW |
Following its written policy, the Executive Council sanctioned the authors of two abstracts for duplicate presentations at the 2012 ASCRS Annual Meeting that had previously been presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW). The sanction included a three year prohibition on the submission of abstracts for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 ASCRS Annual Meetings.
Read more . . . |
|
