Advancing Telementoring and Improving Outcomes to be Top Priorities
The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) announced the election of Brian J. Dunkin, M.D., as President on April 18th as part of the SAGES 2015 Annual Meeting. Dr. Dunkin is the Head of Surgical Endoscopy at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, and Medical Director of the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Education (MITIE) – a comprehensive education and research institute. He is also Professor of Clinical Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and the John F., Jr. & Carolyn Bookout Chair in Surgical Innovation & Technology.
“I am humbled by the honor of serving as SAGES President for the upcoming year,” said Dr. Dunkin. “The energy and unique ideas created by our membership are unlike any other organization and I am committed to fostering that vitality into meaningful initiatives that serve our members and their patients well.”
Dr. Dunkin will lead two new SAGES initiatives aimed at improving patient care. The first is focused on organizing the society’s work in the quality and outcomes landscape by holding a SAGES Quality Summit in Washington D.C., May 15-16, 2015. There, multiple stakeholders in the field will come together to share their work. The Quality, Outcomes, and Safety Committee will use this information to map out SAGES’ strategy for contributing uniquely to the quality landscape. The second initiative will focus on advancing the field of telementoring – having the ability to mentor a surgeon in one’s own operating room through the early part of their learning curve. Current audio-visual technology enables this type of interaction over distance in a meaningful way and SAGES has created a Telementoring Task Force to leverage collective knowledge and push this field forward. The Task Force is holding a Project 6 Summit in Los Angeles, August 20-22, 2015, where stakeholders in the field will convene to map out strategies to advance the field.
Dr. Dunkin has been a member of the SAGES Board of Governors since 2006 and Chairs the Flexible Endoscopy Committee. He was the Program Chair for the SAGES 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, and serves on the Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) Program, Open-to-MIS, and Finance and Assets Committees. Dr. Dunkin’s areas of research and publication include simulation in healthcare, measurement of procedural skills, techniques in minimally invasive surgery, endolumenal surgery, biliary endoscopy, Barrett’s esophagus, and esophageal physiology.
Additionally, Daniel J. Scott, M.D., has been elected President-Elect of SAGES. Dr. Scott is the Executive Director at the Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He holds the Frank H. Kidd, Jr. MD Distinguished Professorship in Surgery and is Professor and Vice Chair of Education for UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Department of Surgery.
Also joining the SAGES Board this year will be Drs. Robert Lim, Paresh Shah and Patricia Sylla.