2 7
M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
new procedures unless we're also adding value to patient outcomes, to faster returns to
activity, work and productivity.
What accomplishments are you proudest of during your tenure as SAGES president?
Patient safety is one of the themes of my presidential year. Last summer we rolled out
the Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE) program (tinyurl.com/l7dhx2q), which
is a free web-based didactic educational program available to any surgeon or health
provider. It addresses a huge gap in surgical education aimed at reducing injuries relat-
ed to the use of surgical energy devices. It's a huge initiative that's garnering a large
amount of attention and interest worldwide.
Is enough being done to enhance lap surgery safety?
This is something I'm really passionate about. Even though it's been a quarter-century
since lap cholecystectomy began the minimally invasive era, we're still seeing issues
with bile duct injuries.
How big is the problem?
The incidence has not gone down — approximately 3,000 injuries occur each year. At my
direction, SAGES initiated a 6-step safe cholecystectomy program (tinyurl.com/kghfvzy) to
better educate surgeons about strategies for reducing biliary injuries and other complica-
tions from cholecystectomy, which at approximately 750,000 surgeries each year, is the
most common procedure done by general surgeons.
So teaching is a passion of yours?
SAGES is an education society. We're forming a task force to address the topic of robotic
surgery. We need to provide some balance on the issue and help surgeons understand
where the robot adds value and where it doesn't.
What common challenges do surgeons face today?
We work in such an incredibly tight regulatory environment. Payors are driving what can and
