Louisville Medicine Volume 63, Issue 11 | Page 24

son said, also discussing his involvement with the ACS’s continued push for deliberate post-medical school education and testing. A group of ACS members including Dr. Richardson are expected to soon discuss the proper way to analyze surgical competence. “It’s my belief that surgical training is different from any other specialty training,” Dr. Richardson stated. “Right now, all specialties are monitored under a broad umbrella that tries to include surgery. There’s nobody in our system that looks to see if you can really operate or not. It’s all lesson plans, goals and objectives.” Dr. Richardson hopes that by gathering like-minded surgeons, they’ll be able to approach the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and offer assistance. be glacial in its pace of change. It’s not that way now. Does it move as rapidly as some people would like? Probably not. But, some things that people want, they must take the time to think through.” In his spare time, Dr. Richardson spends time with his wife Suzanne, children and grandchildren. He is a huge UK basketball fan and never missed a game when he attended medical school. He’s long been active in the thoroughbred horse business and has several horses in training, in addition to a hand in commercial breeding. Aaron Burch is the communications specialist for the Greater Louisville Medical Society. “Our position is ‘You need to let us help you.’ Our last site visit was done by a pediatric psychiatrist! They didn’t know what questions to ask; they just checked the boxes. But, people skills don’t translate into surgical skills. If you ask a patient if they’d rather have a jerk neurosurgeon who’s really good or a sweet polite surgeon who isn’t any good in the OR, they’ll take the jerk every day,” he said. As with the Transition to Practice Program and the Advisory Council for Rural Surgery, this ACS endeavor will take time. But, Dr. Richardson isn’t worried so much about that. “The ACS used to PROFESSIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT PACKAGE Do you have a new physician joining your practice? Are you opening a new satellite office? Are you moving to a new office location? The GLMS Professional Announcement Package provides mailings and printed announcements in the monthly publications to let your colleagues know about changes in your practice. Outsource your next mailing to GLMS. CONTACT Cheri McGuire, Director of Marketing 502.736.6336 [email protected] 22 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE