Newswise — SAN DIEGO: Last night Honorary Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) was awarded to 10 prominent surgeons from around the world. The Honorary Fellowships were presented at the Convocation, which preceded the opening of the annual ACS Clinical Congress, at the San Diego Convention Center. This year’s recipients were:
Patrick J. Broe, MCh, FRCSI, FRCSEd(Hon)
Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Patrick J. Broe is a past-president (2012–2014) and emeritus clinical professor of surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). After graduating from the University College Dublin Medical School in 1974 and completing his basic surgical training in Ireland, he was granted RCSI Fellowship in 1978. Dr. Broe completed the Higher Surgical Training Program in Ireland, eventually becoming Consultant General Surgeon to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, in 1987 until his recent retirement from that role. Elected as an RCSI council member in 1991, Dr. Broe has continuously served in a leadership role in the organization. He has chaired several RCSI committees centered on surgical education and training. As RCSI president, Dr. Broe revamped the duration and scope of surgical training along the lines of a residency program. In his role as Group Clinical Director in the RCSI Hospitals Group, he has a continued medical leadership role with an emphasis on quality and safety and reconfiguration of surgical services to ensure adequate elective work within the group. His prominence as a surgical educator was recognized with the coveted Association of Surgeons in Training’s 2015 Silver Scalpel Award for inspirational trainers.
Miguel A. Cainzos, MD, PhD, FACS
La Coruña, Spain
Dr. Miguel A. Cainzos is recognized internationally for his contributions as a surgical investigator and educator. Dr. Cainzos has done important work to reduce surgical infections in Spain. He was appointed Director of the National Plan to Reduce Surgical Infections by Spain’s Ministry of Health in 1996, and over the following four years established a network to enable multicenter studies on surgical infections across specialties. His leadership resulted in reduced surgical infections and the establishment of national guidelines for their prevention. Dr. Cainzos has been a Fellow of the ACS since 1997, serving as Spain Chapter President (2000–2009), Chapter Governor (2009–2015), and member of the International Relations Committee (2008–2014). He created Internet-based educational courses for the Surgical Infection Society-Europe and the European Society for Surgical Research that many European surgical residencies use. He was head of the department of surgery, University of Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña (1993–2004), and has been president of the Surgical Infection Society-Europe and the European Society for Surgical Research.
Francisco J. F. Castro Sousa, MD, FACS
Coimbra, Portugal
Dr. Francisco J. F. Castro Sousa has been a leader in Portuguese surgery for nearly 40 years. He trained and has practiced at the Coimbra University Hospital, eventually becoming chair of surgical services (1998–present) and professor of surgery at University of Coimbra Medical School (1990–present). Dr. Sousa has been dedicated to better patient care and trainee education at those institutions and beyond, serving as president of the medical school’s scientific board (1998–2004) and dean (2004–2009). He was named honorary professor of surgery at the Complutensis University of Madrid, Spain, and has been a visiting professor in the U.S. and globally. He has served as secretary and president of the Portuguese Society of Surgery, among other roles, and has been a leader and member of several other domestic and international medical societies. A Fellow of the ACS since 1996, Dr. Sousa served as an International Governor (2009–2015) and President of the Portugal Chapter (2010–present). In addition, he has published more than 800 scientific articles and five books on improving research in general surgery, laparoscopy, and robotics. Dr. Sousa founded the Coimbra Liver and Transplantation Programme in 1992.
Renzo Dionigi, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), ASA(Hon)
Milan, Italy
Dr. Renzo Dionigi has had a prolific surgical career that has spanned both U.S. and international surgery. Early in his career, Dr. Dionigi conducted research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio, in the areas of surgical infection, immunology, and transplantation. In the 1970s, he worked closely with Stanley Dudrick, MD, FACS, to introduce the concept and practice of total parenteral nutrition to Europe, and he studied the effects of artificial nutrition on some aspects of the immune response. Dr. Dionigi became a professor of surgery at the University of Pavia, Italy, in 1984, and in 1986 was assigned by the medical faculty there to open a branch of the Pavia Medical School in Varese. He became chief of the department of surgery and dean of the new medical school in 1990. In the early 1990s, he was instrumental in founding the University of Insubria, which now has more than 12,000 students. A Fellow of the ACS since 1980, Dr. Dionigi has authored over 700 scientific publications and seven books, including the sixth edition of the renowned Chirurgia, and has received many awards, accolades, and distinguished appointments, including the Invernizzi Award, Italy’s highest medical teaching honor.
Juan Hepp, MD, FACS
Santiago, Chile
Dr. Juan Hepp will be recognized for his contributions to liver and transplantation surgery in Chile. He was awarded a German Academic Exchange Fellowship in 1981 to study abdominal surgery and transplantation in Hanover. Dr. Hepp returned to Chile and performed the first liver transplantation in the country in 1985. He cofounded the “Corporacion pro trasplante hepático” (1988) and the “Corporacion de trasplantes” (1989), the latter of which was in charge of transplant procurement and, now, supporting transplantation in Chile. He also was involved in drafting the amendment to the transplant law in 1994 and in many other pro-transplantation activities in the country. In 1992, he joined Clinica Alemana de Santiago, a 440-bed, private, not-for-profit academic institution. He was appointed director of surgery in 1999 and medical director in 2012. Dr. Hepp launched Clinica Alemana de Santiago’s liver transplant program in 1993, which provides special financial support to make liver transplantation available to all. In 2001, he was involved in creating the Clinica Alemana School of Medicine, Universidad del Desarrollo, where he has served as professor since 2007. Dr. Hepp is a past-president of the Chilean Society of Surgery (2008).
Valerie J. Lund, CBE, MB BS, FRCS, FRCSEd
Wraybury, U.K.
Dr. Valerie J. Lund has led a distinguished career for nearly 40 years, during which she contributed to surgery and her specialty, otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Dr. Lund is professor of rhinology, University College London, and an honorary consultant at several hospitals. She has been honored for her groundbreaking contributions to the treatment of paranasal sinus cancer and has been involved in endoscopic sinus surgery and its extended applications since the 1980s. Dr. Lund is a prolific medical writer, having contributed 36 books and monographs, 86 book chapters, and more than 320 peer-reviewed papers to the scientific corpus. In addition to lecturing widely, Dr. Lund has been awarded numerous honors from around the world for her work in otolaryngology and rhinology; these distinctions include the George Davey Howell Memorial Prize from the University of London in 1990, the W. J. Harrison Prize from the Royal Society of Medicine in 2012, and several honorary degrees and society fellowships from around the world. She was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2008 for her service to medicine in the U.K
Masatoshi Makuuchi, MD, PhD
Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Masatoshi Makuuchi will be recognized for years of clinical and academic service in Japan, as well as his contributions to the use of ultrasonography in surgery. Dr. Makuuchi has worked in several leadership positions at prestigious medical institutions in Japan, including professor and chairman, the first department of surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine (1990–1994); and professor and chairman, hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery division, artificial organ and transplantation division department of surgery, University of Tokyo (1997–2007). He also has served as president of surgical organizations and has delivered more than 1,000 guest lectures and written more than 1,000 journal articles. In the early 1980s, Dr. Makuuchi developed various surgical techniques and new procedures involving ultrasonography, including ultrasonically guided parcutaneous transhepatic cholangiography and bile drainage, intraoperative ultrasonography, ultrasonically guided subsegmentectomy, and four new techniques for hepatectomies preserving the inferior right hepatic vein. Dr. Makuuchi’s continuing success in using ultrasonography for a variety of hepatic and gastroenterologic procedures has made him one of the world’s foremost experts in the applied surgical use of the technology.
Clare L. Marx, CBE, DL, MB BS, FRCS
Woodbridge, U.K.
Dr. Clare L. Marx is immediate past-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSEng). She was the first woman in the history of the organization to hold the office, as well as the first woman to serve as president of the British Orthopaedic Association. An orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Marx trained in the London, U.K., area and was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St. Mary’s Hospital and St. Charles Hospital, London, in 1990. She then served as consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Ipswitch Hospital, U.K., from 1993 to 2014, where she chaired several hospital committees. Dr. Marx joined the RCS in 1981, and was elected president in 2014. In that role, Dr. Marx established the Emerging Leaders program to encourage women to enter the surgical profession. She also chairs the RCS Invited Review Mechanism Committee, as well as the Trauma and Orthopaedic Specialist Advisory Committee, which developed a new training curriculum for the specialty. In 2007, she received a CBE for her services to medicine. Dr. Marx was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk County and elected president of the British Orthopaedic Association in 2008.
Orgoi Sergelen, MD, PhD, FACS
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Dr. Orgoi Sergelen is being honored for her commitment to treating the people of Mongolia, which has the world’s lowest population density. To address the absence of basic surgical care, Dr. Sergelen led the Mongolian World Health Organization’s Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care. This coordinated effort to address the absence of adequate capacity for emergency and essential surgical care services in low- and middle-income countries resulted in dramatic improvements in surgical and anesthetic care capabilities in more than 300 isolated rural communities. Dr. Sergelen orchestrated the nationwide expansion of laparoscopy over a 10-year period. In 2005, when nearly 50 percent of the population was still nomadic, only 4 percent of gallbladders were removed laparoscopically; now, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is available in 17 of 21 provinces. She also introduced the Advanced Trauma Life Support® program to Mongolia, where traumatic injury is the third leading cause of death. Dr. Sergelen led the development of lower-cost liver transplant and orchestrated inclusion for all transplantation into the government health plan. This initiative improved intensive care unit capability, pathology, gastrointestinal support, and pharmacy strengthening for the entire health care system in Mongolia.
Fu-Chan Wei, MD
Taipei, Taiwan
Dr. Fu-Chan Wei is a world-renowned pioneer in reconstructive microsurgery. He has been a professor of surgery at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taipei, since 1990, and in that time has served as chairman of vascularized composite allotransplantation, (2011–present); dean of the Medical College (2003–2011); and chair, department of plastic surgery (1994–2000). Dr. Wei and his team reconstructed and optimized functional aesthetic outcomes for more than 22,000 patients who suffered from traumatic injury or tumor resection, and his work to develop autologous tissue transplantation has revolutionized reconstruction for those patients. He also is the innovator of the osteoseptocutaneous fibula flap, which dramatically improved the reconstruction of composite bone and soft tissue defects in the jaw and extremities. In addition to his clinical accomplishments, Dr. Wei has welcomed more than 1,300 visiting surgeons from 75 countries to observe him and his team. He has personally trained and mentored more than 100 fellows in his specialty and been visiting professor around the world; contributed more than 500 scientific articles, 18 books, 100 books chapters, and 600 invited lectures; and has been awarded nearly every major honor in the fields of plastic surgery and microsurgery.
Presenting the Honorary Fellowships last night on behalf of the College was Courtney M. Townsend, Jr., MD, FACS. The ACS sponsoring Fellows who nominated the Honorary Fellows included A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Mark A. Malangoni, MD, FACS, Philadelphia; Enrique Moreno Gonzalez, MD, FACS(Hon), Madrid, Spain; L. D. Britt, MD, MPH, DSc(Hon), FACS, FCCM, FRCSEng(Hon), FRCSEd(Hon), FWACS(Hon), FRCSI(Hon), FCS(SA)(Hon), FRCSGlasg(Hon), Norfolk, Va.; Patricia J. Numann, MD, FACS, Syracuse, N.Y.; Gerald B. Healy, MD, FACS, Wellesley, Mass.; Junji Machi, MD, FACS, Honolulu; Hilary A. Sanfey, MB BCh, FACS, Springfield, Ill.; Raymond R. Price, MD, FACS, Murray, Utah; and Kant Y. Lin, MD, FACS, Charlottesville, Va.
Another highlight during the Convocation was the awarding of Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons to surgeons from around the award. Fellowship is awarded to surgeons whose education and training, professional qualifications, surgical competence, and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation and have been found to be consistent with the high standards established and demanded by the College. During this year’s ceremony, 1,827 surgeons were admitted into Fellowship. Sir Rickman Godlee, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, was awarded the first Honorary Fellowship in the ACS during the College’s first Convocation in 1913. Since then, 462 internationally prominent surgeons, including the ten chosen this year, have been named Honorary Fellows of the American College of Surgeons.
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About the American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org.
Editor’s Note: Full citations and photos of each Honorary Fellow are available from the ACS Office of Public Information. Email: [email protected]
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