ISSUES COMMITTEE

Chair -  Rick Thirlby, M.D., Virginia Mason Medical Center  Richard.Thirlby@vmmc.org

• Doug Dorner, M.D., Iowa Health – Des Moines
• Tom Whalen, M.D., Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center
• Cynthia Graves, M.D., West Virginia University
• Joe Jensen, M.D., University of Arkansas
• Tom Broughan, M.D., University of Oklahoma
• Jacqueline Osland, M.D., University of Kansas, Wichita

Charge to the Issues Committee

• Examine the issue of the increasing or decreasing attractiveness of a career in general surgery amongst medical students.
• Examine ways to obtain ethical sources of funding for surgical education.
• Examine the issue of accreditation for residency program directors.
• Investigate ways general surgery programs can train their residents to encourage them to go into rural general surgery.
• Investigate the impact of newer technology on general surgical training programs.
• Understand the role of early specialization for general surgery residents in their training.
• Compose the committee of a mixture of university, hybrid, community programs.