Responsibility

Abstract

I would like to thank you for allowing me this opportunity to serve as president of our Association. It is a singular honor for which I am immensely grateful. Each of us has had role models, mentors, and friends who have helped us to attain our success in surgery. I have been fortunate to have many. As a student, I met Drs. Gamelli and Davis, who not only showed me that surgery was the correct specialty for me but also then went on to provide the framework for my training in residency and support for my academic career. I am immensely grateful to each of them. After completing residency, I was assigned to the Institute of Surgical Research or the US Army Burn Unit to fulfill my Army obligation. There, I was fortunate to work with and for Drs. A.D. Mason and Basil A. Pruitt. The support I received from each of these individuals clinically, academically, and personally can never be repaid. Upon leaving San Antonio, I was recruited to Brown University. During the past two decades I have worked with a large number of faculty, residents, and students who helped transform a small community trauma service into a well-run academically active and clinically excellent division. I would like to thank my vice-chair of surgery and longtime friend, Dr. Tom Tracy; Dr. David Harrington, who serves not only as our program director but also the director of our Burn Center; and Dr. Chuck Adams, our division chief. All three are colleagues but more importantly friends. The entire Division of Trauma deserve the most thanks for it is they who do the lion’s share of clinical work and research. The past year has been one of both personal, and I hope, Association growth. The Executive Committee, Drs. Scalea, Coimbra, Croce, Briggs, and Mackersie, deserve special thanks, as does the entire the Board of Managers. I have been fortunate to have many friends in our Association over the 25 years that I have been a member. I would like to personally thank Drs. David Feliciano, Jerry Jurkovich, L.D. Britt, Ron Maier, and Wayne Meredith for their support and guidance. I would be remiss if I did not thank the person who helps drive the mission of the AAST [American Association for the Surgery of Trauma] and who I believe has been instrumental in helping our Association grow during the past decade, Ms. Sharon Gaustchy, our executive director, and her staff, Ms. Jermica Smith and Ms. Tamara Jenkins, who play a pivotal role in helping us advance our core mission. I come from a family with four brothers and sisters who remain close friends and continuous supporters of each of our families. My parents were instrumental in helping me realize my goals, with my father teaching me motivation and discipline and my mother, caring and empathy, all traits which I hope I have carried over into my professional and personal life. My wife Theresa and our five children are the people who sacrificed most for my professional career and deserve special thanks. For decades, Theresa has taught me compassion, caring, and perspective, and our children, Jessica, Rachel, Sara, Nicholas, and Isabel constantly provide me with the continued motivation to attempt to maintain a balanced perspective. I love them all dearly and thank them for their patience and support. When trying to decide on a topic for my address, I went through the usual path of reading scores of presidential addresses and talking to many friends all whose comments were very similar—talk about something you care for, make it personal, and be passionate about it. After months of thought, panic set in when I realized the meeting was only a few months away, and I had yet to decide on a topic. In reality, I chose the title “Responsibility” last year. I chose “Responsibility,” not because of the large number of issues facing health care such as cost, a perceived decline in quality, the public’s perception of medicine and physicians, the future of trauma, or the decline in real NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding, but be