History is not facts and dates, but rather, it is people and their lives. Yes, the history of our profession is embodied by pioneers like Frank Moody and the others I’ve mentioned.
We have many Fellows among us who are living history, still contributing – maybe not at the dais but at the dinner table, speaking softly and walking a bit slower than their juniors. Thanks to LaMar McGinnis who started it and Don Nakayama who continues it, the College has a History Community on the ACS Communities, an active Surgical History Group, and a will to acknowledge the history that lives and breathes among us. The Surgical History Group has organized a full program of events at the Clinical Congress and I hope many attendees take the opportunity to attend.
Take a moment at your next meeting or at the Clinical Congress and look for those historic surgeons still with us. Be smarter than I was at a young age and get to know them. You may learn something from them you can’t learn anyplace else.
Dr. Hughes is clinical professor in the department of surgery and director of medical education at the Kansas University School of Medicine, Salina Campus, and Co-Editor of ACS Surgery News.