July 27, 2009 – Last July, George F. Sheldon, MD, traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. The meeting centered around Dr. Sheldon’s work with the ACS HPRI, American College of Surgeons Health Policy Research. Dr. Sheldon serves as the Director of the ACS Health Policy Research Institute and along with Co-Director Thomas J. Ricketts, Ph.D. has developed a collection of national, regional, and state-level maps of the total and general surgeon workforce relative to population density. These maps provide the ratio of providers to population at the county-level for the purpose of assessing the geographic distribution of surgeons in the United States.
The purpose of the meeting with Sebelius was to discuss the oncoming severe shortage of surgeons. In his article, The Surgeon Shortage: Constructive Participation during Health Reform, Dr. Sheldon includes the following quote from Kathleen Sebelius: “Health Systems reform cannot happen without adequate supply of well trained, well distributed providers.”
The American College of Surgeons Health Policy Research Institute is an organization which studies and reports on issues related to the state of the surgical profession, the surgical workforce, and surgical utilization in the United States. The Institute provides expert advice, data analysis, and original research for surgical professional associations and boards, policymakers, and the health services research community. More information on the Institute can be found at acshpri.org/