Welcome to the SAGES Committee Descriptions and Updates. Expect this information to change roughly twice a year as we have our Fall and Spring committee meetings. We also publish a list of committee chairs and co-chairs as well as full committee rosters.
Acute Care Surgery Task Force ▾
Description/Goals
- Organize SAGES educational efforts regarding acute care surgery
- Foster collaborative relationships with other acute care surgery organizations
Advocacy and Health Policy ▾
Description/Goals
- Keep the general membership and executive comittee informed and educated of current and pending legislative action.
- Maintian SAGES involvement, participation and representation in national and state legislative functions involving health care related issues
- Continue to participate and pursue appropriate CPT coding for our membership with representation and communication with the RUC.
- Enlighten and educate the press, employers and legislative bodies about MIS options for patients.
- Enlighten and educate patients and the public of their minimally invasive options if they are to undergo surgery.
Alternative Funding Solutions Task Force ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Artificial Intelligence Task Force ▾
Description/Goals
Mission Statement
Improve patient care, and augment surgeon’s cognitive capabilities and operative experience, through the dissemination and democratization of knowledge leveraged by the use of Artificial intelligence.
Awards ▾
Description/Goals
- Continue to make the annual awards ceremony a high profile, prestigious event and leverage it for Foundation growth
Bylaws ▾
Description/Goals
- Review current policies and activities of SAGES in order to propose necessary revisions in the Society's Bylaws and draft proposals for revision or amend for conflict or inconsistency the Society's Bylaws as an initiative of the Bylaws Committee or upon request of SAGES leadership, committees, staff or members.
Colorectal ▾
Description/Goals
- Develop educational content for the SAGES Masters Program Colon Pathway Curricula
- Create a forum to enhance awareness of the needs of surgeons for improved adoption of MIS in colorectal surgery
- Develop a dynamic platform to inform and educate surgeons on the evolving role of MIS in colorectal surgery
- Collaborate with other societies to align educational programs, clinical recommendations, and clinical trial activities in the field of colorectal surgery
Communications ▾
Description/Goals
- Foster communication between members and to members in a variety of ways.
- Enhance membership marketing to increase membership.
- Increase functionality to make SAGES media resources the go-to resources in MIS (laparoscopy and endoscopy) for trainees, practicing surgeons, public and the media.
- Create and execute a PR strategy to generate positive coverage of SAGES in both industry press and general media.
- Enlighten and educate patients and the public of their minimally invasive options if they are to undergo surgery.
Communications - Facebook Subgroup ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Community Practice ▾
Description/Goals
- Organize the efforts regarding Community Practice Surgery.
- Establish a forum for Community Practice Surgery members to identify and address specific concerns.
- Foster a collaborative relation with reginal surgical societies.
- Promote the SAGES member participation of Community Practice Surgeons.
Conflict of Interest ▾
Description/Goals
- To further refine methods for overseeing the disclosure process for all SAGES' CME educational activities; reviewing content authors relationships for potential conflict of interest; managing potential bias in advance of an activity; resolving any instances of reported bias
- To implement the use of a practical tools for risk and faculty managemenet to improve consistency and compliance
- To collect data and present this data to appropriate stakeholders regarding the impact of SAGES' conflict of interest policies
Continuing Education ▾
Description/Goals
- To ensure all accredited education programs planned and implemented by the society are designed to enable or inspire SAGES members to learn new skills and/or practice patterns that will facilitate the delivery of improved patient care and/or professional practice. To this end, ACCME standards, policies and requirements will be implemented for all accredited programs.
- To further refine methods of assessment for the SAGES Annual Meeting, incorporating the ACCME planning process. The effectiveness of our CME programs will be assessed according to the ACCME defined domains of competency. In doing so, the committee will facilitate the SAGES in meeting the standards required for re-accreditation by the ACCME. Additionally, our committee will continue to refine the methodologies related to timing, distribution, and content of assessments in an effort to maximize data collection and enhance efficiency.
- To expand the impact of SAGES educational materials, as measured by CME-related domains of competency. As appropriate, our committee aims to develop and implement new CME curricula using SAGES materials that will foster more widespread usage of these materials, increase knowledge related to gastrointestinal and endoscopic surgery, allow self-assessment and granting of incremental CME credit with automatic tracking, and enhance value for SAGES members.
Development ▾
Description/Goals
- Bring five new companies as donors and supoprters to the meeting and/or courses
- Increase development funding (excluding booths) by 3%
- Improve education and communication to our corporate sponsors, including enhancing personal meetings
- Explore alternate funding, including grants (eg PCORI, AHRQ) with committees to fund projects
- Encourage projects leaders in SAGES to help secure funding
Diversity, Leadership & Professional Development ▾
Description/Goals
- Identify barriers and facilitators to creating a diverse organization
- Develop strategic plan for implementation of programming and opportunities that promote diversity and inclusivity within SAGES
Education Council ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Educational Resources ▾
Description/Goals
- Add to Pearls Series
- Initiate Top 21 Videos
- Digitize existing video catalog
- Generate plan for revision of current content in SCORE
Ethics ▾
Description/Goals
- Responsible for addressing matters of an ethical nature, as directed by the Board.
- In matters concerning SAGES Member disciplinary questions, Ethics Committee will serve in an investigative and advisory role when requested by the SAGES President.
- In matters of an ethical nature with broad interest to the SAGES Membership, Ethics Committee will offer thoughtful analyses for presentation at the Annual Meeting and publication in Surgical Endoscopy.
Finance ▾
Description/Goals
- To maintain a conservative investment strategy protecting our assets.
- To budget in alignment with the strategic goals developed at the retreat and approved by the Executive committee and board. The budget will be developed with the goal of being realistic and conservative
- To develop budget with the philosophy to invest in the society’s activities rather than to restrict spending tightly and create a large surplus
- Explore alternate high yield investments for small portion of portfolio
- Work with committee chairs to stay fiscally responsible
Flexible Endoscopy ▾
Description/Goals
- To facilitate training in flexible endoscopy at all levels of membership (resident, fellow and attending physicians- nationally and internationally)
- To facilitate the credentialing of surgeons in flexible endoscopy
- To aid in the development, study and adaptation of new endoscopic technology and techniques amongst general surgeons
Foregut ▾
Description/Goals
- Determine standards to optimize patient safety and define clinical, educational, and research applications for existing and evolving management/treatment of reflux disease, esophageal motility disorders and abnormalities of the diaphragm
- Establish best practice guidelines for safe and responsible assessment and application of new techniques and technologies
- Establish guidelines for the appropriate comprehensive preoperative foregut evaluation
- Establish and maintain a leadership role within the rapidly expanding area of both primary and revisional procedures as well as endoluminal platforms for foregut diseases
- Liaise with other societies and working groups who are active in this space
- Determine quality metrics of operative procedures to determine their appropriate role in the management of foregut diseases
Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy ▾
Description/Goals
- Increase adoption of FUSE
- Focus on marketing FUSE nationally
- Facilitate and encourage use of free FUSE curriculum for trainee education
- Increase group collaboration (Facebook group)
Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery ▾
Description/Goals
- Open additional test centers
- Increase number of test takers
- Complete FES 2.0 didactic update
- Prepare for ABS mandate
- Revise Cognitive Exam
Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery ▾
Description/Goals
- Smooth rollout of FLS to all residency programs
- Increase worldwide incorporation of FLS into surgical training and credentialing
- Work with insurance companies to provide premium to FLS-certified surgeons
- Revise Blueprint for Written Component of Exam/Didactics
- Revise Blueprint for Skills Component of Exam/Training
Global Affairs ▾
Description/Goals
- To leverage education in laparoscopy and endoscopy to promote global collaboration and exchange of knowledge to optimize all patient care
- Interact, foster, and collaborate with national, regional societies
- Manage relationship with SAGES international sister societies
- Brand SAGES internationally
- Liaise with Membership Committee to foster international membership growth
- Encourage global collaboration in research, education, and innovation
- Strategic integration with ongoing SAGES efforts internationally (Safe Chole, FLS, etc.)
Guidelines ▾
Description/Goals
- Create evidence based clinical practice guidelines for certain procedures to be published in a timely manner; to create and continue awareness of importance of evidence-based guidelines in day-to-day practice
- Continue to update existing guidelines
- Increase & improve collaboration with other professional societies
- Continue to improve committee organization & influence efforts of other SAGES committees through appropriate or supportive task forces in the committee such as: Guideline Implementation and Living Guidelines Task Forces
Hernia ▾
Description/Goals
- Develop Goals and Objectives for the Hernia Clinical Care Pathway
- Begin Developing Curricular Elements for Each Pathway Level (Competency, Proficiency, and Mastery)
- Write Review Articles of the Top 10 Papers for each Anchoring Procedure
- Launch the Virtual Hernia Clinic (Inguinal Hernia Patient)
HPB/Solid Organ ▾
Description/Goals
- Enhance the safe dissemination and continued development of minimally invasive HPB surgery
- Establish and strengthen collaboration and join projects, between SAGES and HPB Specialty Societies
- Engage stakeholders in minimally invasive HPB education and help develop robust need-based educational programs for practicing surgeons and fellows
- Attract and foster national and international bonds with minimally invasive HPB leaders in the field
- Define minimally invasive HPB procedures which could be appropriate for the general surgeon to perform and develop guidelines for safe implementation
Membership ▾
Description/Goals
- To maintain a national membership recruitment strategy, work with marketing to promote SAGES University CME-MOC, continuing education, and website tools
- To create an international membership recruitment strategy, work with marketing, global initiatives, continuing education, and web site tools
- To encourage membership growth rate each year, continue regular communication with membership, increase efforts to reduce number of potential drops and member record accuracy
- Maintain conversion rate for Candidates to Active status and promote post-residency and fellowship program member benefits
- Investigate new membership categories and recruitment to bolster additional membership categories
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery ▾
Description/Goals
- Liaise with other SAGES committees on issues pertaining to bariatric surgery
- Liaise with ASMBS and other appropriate GI and surgical organizations on flexible endoscopy bariatric curriculum
- Establish patient safety and examine clinical, training, and research applications for existing and evolving bariatric procedures
- Ensure new techniques and technologies are used responsibly and safely
- Ensure therapies are offered within the context of a comprehensive bariatric and metabolic disease program
- Maintain a presence and leadership within the rapidly expanding area of both primary and revisional procedures on platforms
Military ▾
Description/Goals
- Provide SAGES military members a forum to identify and address military specific concerns in surgery
- Provide an avenue for military surgical residents to present their research to senior military leaders
- Provide a robust, academic environment to collaborate and develop a working relationship with other members of the military including its senior leadership.
- Provide expert opinion, assist with skill acquisition to proficient and mastery level, and to help maintain certification for military and civilian SAGES surgeons.
Nominating ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Oncology ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Pediatrics ▾
Description/Goals
- To create Pediatric surgical content for SAGES members for the advancement of safe application of minimally invasive surgery to the pediatric population.
- Improve PED surgeon recruitment and active participation into SAGES
- Promote PED surgeon SAGES member participation broadly in SAGES through committee service, program participation and leadership in the organization
Program ▾
Description/Goals
- Develop process by which Program Committee is able to provide input to Annual Meeting Program Chair in time to incorporate
- Enforce Program Committee Policy for non-reviews, no shows, no syllabus
- Develop process to engage Program Committee members to review program components during annual meeting
Publications ▾
Description/Goals
- To serve as oversight for all publications involving SAGES' name
- To develop strategies and entertain ideas for new SAGES publications
- To serve as the interface between SAGES and its publisher
- Participation in Jt. Journal Committee with EAES & Springer
- Investigate novel publication strategy with a focus on developing revenue streams for SAGES
Quality, Outcomes, Safety ▾
Description/Goals
- To educate members, fellows, residents and students to identify and pursue ways to assess and improve patient safety, quality and outcomes
- To liaise with other committees to assure that the SAGES quality, outcomes and safety mission is appropriately and contextually represented in all SAGES activities
- To provide a framework to guide the safe introduction of new and emerging technologies and techniques in the operating room and endoscopy suite
- To provide content expertise in collaborations with societies, regulators, payers and providers on issues of data collection, quality metrics, and appropriateness in current, new, and emerging technologies and techniques in gastrointestinal and endoscopic surgery
- To identify benchmarks and best practices that members can utilize
- To propose and develop data collection and reporting systems and standards where none exist for new and emerging technologies and techniques in minimal access surgery
Research and Career Development ▾
Description/Goals
- Continue to effectively follow grants - There will be more of a rigid follow-up process to minimize stalled grants, more clear reminders of expectations for publication in journal and presentation at SAGES, finalize and present grant impact survey
- Career Development Seminar: Make effective & well-received, investigate video recording with web access - Repeat and improve every other year alternating from East to West Coast
- Continue streamlined & prompt grant review
- Focus more on developing more research opporunities - The committee will start with forming a Delphi subcommittee
- Facilitate collaborations for SAGES Members
Resident and Fellow Training ▾
Description/Goals
- Maintain the excellent caliber webinar and hands-on resident education courses (including the international courses) as either local/regional or national courses - Maintain an open mind if further budget neutral opportunities arise
- Encourage residents to begin the process of lifelong learning with continuous self-assessment
- Actively develop assessment tools that reach beyond the Fundamentals series to establish a means of documenting surgical competency (and possibly proficiency)
- Take a lead role in developing and implementing MIS Fellowship Curriculum
- Represent SAGES among other surgical organizations in regards to Resident and Fellow issues
Robotics ▾
Description/Goals
- Provide a balanced view on innovative robotic techniques
- Define training so that patient safety is always in the forefront
- Evaluate clinical trials, research and procedure development to determine robotic outcomes
- Create a facilitated forum that will inform and educate surgeons on the value of robotics in the growing field of MIS
Safe Chole Task Force ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…
Technology and Value Assessment ▾
Description/Goals
- To evaluate and make evidence-based recommendations regarding the adoption of new and existing technology
- To assess new technology or equipment and evaluate the costs of such technology as well as its ability to provide innovative and modern care.
- To partner with innovators, investors, industry, regulators and other SAGES committees to foster innovative and emerging technologies that may benefit our patients.
Technology Council ▾
Description/Goals
Coming soon…