The regional surgical society and physician advocacy

Abstract

The role of regional surgical societies in American Surgery is being reexamined. Specialty societies have expanded and proliferated, reflecting the importance of advanced surgical skills and knowledge in current surgical practice. Regional surgical societies bring together surgeons from defined geographical areas, presumably reflecting common practice, political and social issues from that specific area. While regional societies have had an ongoing role in surgical education, their continued viability will depend, in part, on their ability to serve as an advocate for their physician members. To advocate means to represent one’s views in another audience. Regional surgical societies serve as advocates for their members to national surgical organizations, such as the American College of Surgeons and the American Board of Surgery. This mechanism is already in place through representations by these societies in these two organizations and communication with their leadership. However, the ability of regional societies to serve as advocates for their surgeon members and, by extension, for their patients to other audiences is less clear and certainly less structured. Given the unique characteristics of a regional society’s members, there may be great value in being an advocate to various regulatory bodies and legislative groups at both the local and national level. This is usually where decisions are made that greatly influence delivery of patient care. Another, less well defined role of regional societies is to serve as an advocate for their members to the public and the patients for whom the members care. A better understanding by these constituents of the nature of surgical practice and ongoing changes in the delivery of medical care might greatly improve physician-patient interactions with resultant improved care. The Southwestern Surgical Congress during its recent strategic planning process, identified advocacy as an important role for the organization and has made plans to expand this activity. An advocacy council has been created which includes the representative to the American College of Surgeons and several at large members. Responsibilities of this council will include ongoing solicitation of important issues and concerns of the members, improved communication via its website, electronic mail, and editorials, such as this, and identifying medical and political figures who might contribute to our annual meeting. These activities should lead to other strategies to expand and improve the role of this regional society as an advocate for its surgeon-members. Am J Surg. 2000;180:396. From the Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Jon S. Thompson, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 983280 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-3280. Presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Surgical Congress, Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 9–12, 2000. SCIENTIFIC PAPER