Surgery Section

The Surgery Section, the second largest in the Society, continues to gain strength and be an active and integral part of SCCM. The section is composed of surgeons who focus on the comprehensive evaluation and management of patients with critical surgical illnesses. Involvement is welcome and encouraged. Young surgeons can become actively involved in a vibrant society, with opportunities in a variety of areas. No other medical society can offer the diverse multiprofessional environment and opportunities that are available here.

Section Activities
The Surgery Section is represented on Council as well as on the Executive Committee. This representation is vital as decisions and strategic planning for the Society are made through the Council, and the President is elected from the Executive Committee. Section members are active in the Society as a whole, belonging to various other working committees including the Program Committee for the Annual Congress and the Ethics Committee of the American College of Critical Care Medicine.

 

Surgery Section activities have focused on surgical critical care physicians and physicians in training. The Education Committee, whose primary goal is to improve the education of surgery residents, developed a series of recommendations regarding surgical critical care education. These recommendations have been published in Critical Care Medicine. The Communication Committee, whose goal is to improve communication between the Surgery Section leadership and section members, is reorganizing the Surgery Section iRoom as the repository for all information; it provides contact information on Surgery Section leadership to members in the iRoom, sends out frequent emails to membership, and is developing a white paper regarding the changing structure of training in trauma and surgical critical care. The Membership Committee works within the structure of SCCM to improve membership in the Surgery Section and to encourage renewal of current members within the Society.

Through leadership and involvement in the Society, the Surgery Section makes significant impact. Recommendations have been forwarded from the Society's president to the administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the unbundling of surgical and critical care charges, making it possible for surgeons to bill for their surgical procedures and for critical care services. Important issues such as these, which impact on both the training and practice of surgical critical care, are what drive the section leadership.