and I have had so many blessings that I try not to dwell. Having
said that, it was a bitter disappointment for me. I was really looking
forward to giving the presidential address.”
In October, Dr. Richardson began picking up where he left off.
Through his surgical experiences, there are several aspects of practicing surgery Dr. Richardson has dedicated his resources towards
improving.
Most notably, during his time as Chair of the ACS Board of
Regents, he drew focus towards two issues near and dear to his
heart: access to surgical care in rural and underprivileged areas of
the country and the continued improvement of surgical training.
“If you get in a leadership position and all you do is check the
box and put it on your CV, you’ve wasted an opportunity. These
interests I’ve taken are long-term deals. They’re not anything we
are going to get done in a year. But, if you can start a fire and get
people passionate about it, that’s a start,” he said.
Although he got the wheels moving as board chair, his continued
work with his peers in the ACS have allowed substantial progress
to take shape. Dr. Richardson spoke passionately about both topics,
beginning first with surgical care in underprivileged areas. Growing
up in Morehead, he knew the medical limitations of rural environments from an early age.
“Access to care is an issue for a lot of specialties in rural America
but it’s particularly true of general surgery. If you think about Kentucky, there are no surgeons from Pikeville to Lexington. There are
no surgeons along the Mountain Parkway corridor at all. I’m not
saying there needs to be one in every town, but they are certainly
underrepresented,” he explained, adding that despite the success of
medical missions abroad, physicians sometimes forget about the
work to do at home.
dedicated to building communication and outreach to and from
areas in need. Currently, more than 7,000 rural surgeons are active
on the council’s website which provides them a forum to express
their problems and offer solutions in a group setting.
Dr. Richardson said he is also encouraging that group to use their
political weight, suggesting they point out to legislators the help
they need and leverage possible solutions such as partial student
debt forgiveness for new physicians in exchange for a few years of
service in underprivileged areas.
“Many physicians argue for regionalization, and there are some
specialties which absolutely should be regionalized. Big cancer surgeries, trauma surgeries, they can’t be cared for in small hospitals.
But, regionalization won’t fix everything, and there are all kinds of
places that have a hard time recruiting general surgeons,” he said.
Recruiting surgeons is hard enough, but making sure those surgeons are properly trained is half the battle, and a major one. For
many years he has worked and wrangled with this issue.
As Chair of the Board of Regents, he also put wheels in motion
for the Transition to Practice Program. Now in its third year, the
program provides those finishing residency with a yearlong opportunity to further hone their skills. During that year, the program
will allow residents varying levels of surgical supervision to suit
their needs, beginning with complete supervision and moving
incrementally towards independence.
“When I was in training, we had tremendous autonomy and that
just isn’t the case for residents anymore. Nowadays you have to have
someone holding your hand until the last day of your chief residency year then the next week you’re on your own. If you’ve never
operated alone, it’s very intimidating,” said Dr. Richardson. “The
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