The American College of Surgeons and surgical education

In the seventy-two years since its founding, the American College of Surgeons has changed from an organization directed toward improving the skills of a large number of poorly educated and essentially untrained physicians who were already doing surgery, to an international organization of approximately 50,000 surgeons over 95 per cent of whom have already been certified by a surgical specialty board. The College today, in addition to its numerous scientific meetings and ongoing educational programs, participates, with other organizations, in the accreditation of properly functioning hospitals, in maintaining standards of surgical training programs and in the examination and certification of candidates after the completion of the required training in approved programs. Today the College engages in a far wider range of activities than could have been envisioned by its founders and indeed, it has become an influential voice for surgery throughout the world. But its primary purpose has remained unchanged. Simply stated, it is to improve the care of the surgical patient.