The general, general surgeon

Abstract

It is a tremendous honor for me to present the Thomas G. Orr Memorial Lecture at the Southwestern Surgical Congress this year. I am particularly grateful to President McCollum and his wife, Sally. Dr. Orr served with distinction as the chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Kansas and was the second president of the Southwestern Surgical Association. It occurs to me that Dr. Orr really personified all that is good about our discipline and our profession of general surgery. Dr. Orr was a consummate clinical surgeon. He exhibited the kind of compassion for his patients and their families that reflects great credit upon our discipline. He recognized his responsibility to give back to his community. And he was actively involved in training his successors and instilling within them the kind of rigorous self-criticism that is characteristic of general surgeons—the kind of continuous self-review that makes us perform better and better. In the next 45 minutes I propose to review with you: (a) who we are as general, general surgeons; (b) what our influence and opportunities are concerning the evolution of surgical instrumentation; (c) our responsibilities relative to continued quality assurance and self-review; (d) trends in our training of general surgeons and our responsibilities of maintaining a cohesive discipline of general, general surgery; and finally (e) our almost unique, and gratifying rewarding, opportunity as general surgeons to create sustaining value.