Over the past year and a half, the ACS has been thoughtfully engaged in establishing our strategic plan. Multiple stakeholders have participated, including the Board of Regents, Officers, representative Past Presidents, Board of Governors, Young Fellows Association, Resident and Associate Society, various committee leaders, and staff executives. As with all strategic plans, the purpose has been to create a roadmap, prioritize our essential aims, establish key performance indicators, and ensure the ongoing success of our organization.
The resulting plan has four pillars undergirded by a transcending principle at its base.
Advance Patient-Centered Care and Surgical Quality
"The first pillar, advancing patient-centered care and surgical quality, has been at the core of the ACS since our founding in 1913. Our organization’s motto has been unwavering—To Heal All with Skill and Trust—and this can only be accomplished with continued focus on surgical excellence."
This pillar includes efforts to transform our Quality Programs to better serve participating institutions and to ensure that every patient has access to evidence-based, optimal-quality surgical care. It also prioritizes developing and promoting policies that incentivize high-quality, data-informed, patient-centered care, and educating patients about surgical quality, resulting in enhanced trust in us as surgeons.
Revolutionize and Educate
While the first pillar focuses on the “trust” part of our motto, the second focuses on the “skill” component.
The ACS offers a vast number of timely educational programs that range from artificial intelligence in surgery to hands-on skills training, in-person didactics across disciplines, to offerings for surgeons to develop advanced leadership, communication, and teaching skills.
We will continue developing relevant new products and updating existing, widely used resources, while modernizing our learning platforms to incorporate the latest technology. We will more seamlessly match content to learners’ needs and enhance collaboration across surgical specialties to ensure that our programs are comprehensive and accessible to all members.
Innovate and Accelerate
This pillar highlights our investment in technology infrastructure, including pursuing frontline incorporation of health informatics and digitally transforming the ACS enterprise for a frictionless and personalized experience. This vertical also includes a focus on incorporating strategic agility to accelerate our work, which is necessary to keep the ACS at the forefront of evolving member needs, patient care, and surgical science.
Unify and Advocate
As The House of Surgery®, a key aspect of our mission is to unify surgeons—both across our 90,000 members and across the many surgical disciplines and their respective stakeholders. This focus on collaboration permits us to speak with one voice and leverage our collective influence to protect and advance our roles as leaders of the care team. This prioritizes the best outcomes for our patients. We must connect with leaders across the continuum to help them make the most well-informed decisions. Whether through gentle relationship-building or assertive advocacy, we will fight aggressively for policies and practices that uphold member integrity and foster patient trust.
