The Surgery Section, the second largest in the Society with close to 1,500 members, 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.
The Surgery Section is represented on the 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.
The 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 Surgical Section leadership and its members, is developing the Surgery Section eRoom as the repository for all information, provides contact information of Surgery Section leadership to members in the eRoom, sends out frequent emails with information to membership and is developing a white paper regarding the changing structure of training in trauma and surgical critical care for the future. 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. A new Advocacy Committee is being developed with goals and objectives to be formulated at the 2005 Annual Congress.
Through leadership and involvement in the Society, the Surgery Section makes significant impacts. Most recently, recommendations have been forwarded from the Society's president to the administrator of the Department of Human Health and Services regarding the unbundling of surgical and critical care charges and 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 practicing of surgeons in the field of surgical critical care, are what drive the section leadership. Other resources are available to section membership as well, through the Society and the Web site.
As a member of SCCM and the Surgical Section, you will be able to benefit from these and other activities. Your involvement is welcome and encouraged. As a young surgeon, you 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.
For information on how to become a member of the Surgery Section, please contact Carol Prendergast at:
cprendergast@sccm.org
You may also contact:
Matthew C. Byrnes, MD, FCCM
Section Chair
mbyrnes150@yahoo.com
Term: 2012 - 2013
