The human anatomy is the same independent of nationality, culture, religion and socio-economic status. Therefore, we believe the surgical profession should be equal and comparable between countries, independent of a country’s prosperity. There should be common criteria for certifying surgeons across geographical borders. Surgeons should be able to work across borders without hindrance, given that their educations and the competences are comparable. This vision is the long-term goal of our organization.
We believe that every person who ends up on an operating table should have the right to be operated upon by a well-educated surgeon. We consider the question of surgical quality to be closely related to the Declaration of Human Rights.
WHY focus on SURGICAL TRAINING?
Every year in Sweden about 110,000 patients are affected by care-related injury. Carerelated injuries encompass any form of unforeseen medical damage taking place during a hospital visit. On average, these injuries double the time spent at the hospital (900,000 extra hospital days in Sweden), which leads to an extra cost of 9 billion SEK per year. This represents 13-14% of the total cost of running the Swedish healthcare system (about 65 billion SEK/year).
Earlier reports have shown that close to 3,000 Swedish patients a year die from care-related injuries. By comparison, 200-250 persons die from traffic accidents every year in Sweden. Traffic accident deaths have been notably reduced by investments in safer cars and roads. Corresponding economical investments to reduce avoidable injuries and deaths haven’t been done in hospital care. If the increase in convalescence, sick leave and reduction in work capacity is added to the bill the total cost of care complications to the society becomes notably higher.
Our hypothesis is that many surgery-related injuries can be avoided with improved training for all surgeons. Our aim is to inspire colleagues to do more high quality scientific research on surgical training methods, to connect collaborators in our network to perform international research and interprofessional studies between experts in surgery and instructional design. We intend to be a forum for collection of such data easy to find, and for the extraction of recommendations from such data – free for anyone to follow.
OBJECTIVE
To create an open collaboration with any form of competition by connecting key opinion leaders, surgical societies, governmental bodies, the surgical industry and other engaged authorities – for the benefit of surgeons in training, surgeons as teachers and every single patient by reducing surgical errors. “To Err is Human” – and surgeons are humans.
The purpose is to
– find scientifically validated and standardised methods for manual skill’s training
– work towards internationally valid ‘Driver’s Licenses’ for surgeons
– enlighten the need for standardised surgical training regardless of age and experience when adopting new surgical techniques
THE FOUNDATION
Some research areas are well-known to the public, such as cancer research and research on heart and lung diseases. What is less known is that takes research to educate surgeons in the right way.
It takes interdisciplinary-based education for future surgeons to work in an increasingly more complicated environment. Therefore, we are building our own research fund, through fundraising and sponsorships. The fund’s assets shall be used as research grants which researchers will be able to apply for.
The Surgicon Foundation is a government-regulated nonprofit organization. The foundation’s statutes restrict the funds to be used to support the following:
- Development and scientific research within the subject of surgical training,
- Organising the Surgicon Congress, an international congress about surgical training.
The Foundation’s administrative expenditures are kept at an absolute minimal level and the work with the foundation is done voluntarily. Surgicon’s ultimate goal is to make surgery safer and more cost-effective.
Our immediate aim is to create an interdisciplinary virtual research center dedicated to Surgical Training.
BOARD OF THE SURGICON FOUNDATION
New board 2021:
Dan Farahmand, M.D., Ph.D., Dept of Neurosurgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
Oskar Lindwall, PhD., Associate Professor, Department of Applied Information Technology, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Malin Berg, M.D.,Ph.D., Dept of ENT, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
Jonatan Regander, M.D., Dept of Thoracic surgery, Örebro University Hospital, Sweden
Vishal Amlani, M.D., Dept of Vascular Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
Adjoined
Margareta Berg, M.D., PhD, Orthopaedic surgeon, Founder of Surgicon 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden
Suppleant
Elin Schoultz M.D., Dept of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Former board members
Margareta Berg, M.D., PhD, Orthopaedic surgeon, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Carlos A. Pellegrini, Past President, American College of Surgeons, USA
Richard M. Satava, Pr em, University of Washington, USA
Anthony G. Gallagher, PhD, DSc, University College Cork, Ireland, ORSI Belgium
Richard L. Angelo, M.D., PhD, Past President, Arthroscopy Association of North America, USA
Kai Olms, M.D., Orthopaedic Surgeon, Bad Schwartau, Germany
Johan Hellgren, M.D., PhD, Associate professor, Dept of ENT Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
Karin Sillén, M.D. Dept. of Trauma Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg
Elin Schoultz, M.D., Researcher and Teacher in Anatomy, Gothenburg University
Lena Benson-Dahlgren, PhD, Psychologist, Sweden
Former suppleants
Armen Hovannisyan, M.D., Lidlöpings Hospital, Sweden
Dan Bibac, M.D., Dept of Interventional Radiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
