Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce the call for abstracts for the Oregon and Washington annual ACS meeting. The meeting will take place in Sunriver, OR from June 15-18. Please note the abstract guidelines below. Building on the success of last year, we will devote a special session to abstracts on surgery in rural, international, or underserved settings. Abstracts submitted by interns or residents will be eligible for the resident competition. Oregon trainees will be eligible for the Baker-Mosely Award and Washington trainees will be eligible for the Henry Harkins Award. Please see notes below for the resident competition and the Commission on Cancer award.

Due to the combined nature of the meeting, there will undoubtedly be greater competition for abstract slots. In order to accommodate as many presentations as possible, the bipartisan Abstract Review Committee will review all submitted abstracts. A limited number of those chosen will be for 8-minute presentations, each accompanied by a 5-minute audience discussion. The remainder of those chosen for presentation will be 3-5-minute “mini-presentations”, with discussion of all those papers reserved until the end of the session.

The abstract deadline will be March 13. We will confirm receipt of all abstracts, so please contact us if confirmation is not forthcoming after abstract submission. The meeting will have approximately 40 abstract presentations.

Abstracts Submission Dates

1/17/12:   Call for Abstracts. Click link for the Abstracts Submission Form (online application)
3/13/12:   Deadline
4/24/12:   Judging
5/31/12:   Audiovisual and Manuscripts Due

Abstract Submission Rules

The call for abastracts will be made on February 1, 2012. At that time, ACS members are invited to submit abstracts for presentations in an 8-minute format. A link will be made available for abstract submissions.

Suitable materials include clinical or laboratory research, interesting case vignettes, or personal experience with surgical problems. For the first time this year, we will have a special session focusing on the role of surgery in global health, and we invite participants to submit abstracts describing their service in developing countries, military or other austere environments. Due to the combined nature of the meeting, there will undoubtedly be greater competition for abstract slots. In order to accommodate as many presentations as possible, the bipartisan Abstract Review Committee will review all submitted abstracts. A limited number of those chosen will be for 8-minute presentations, each accompanied by a 5-minute audience discussion. The remainder of those chosen for presentation will be 3-5-minute “mini-presentations”, with discussion of all those papers reserved until the end of the session.

The abstract deadline will be March 13. We will confirm receipt of all abstracts, so please contact us if confirmation is not forthcoming after abstract submission.

Resident Competition

We encourage anyone working with students or residents to compete for Resident Competition Prizes awarded by each chapter. The Oregon Chapter will award the Baker-Moseley Resident Prize for best cancer presentation. The Washington Chapter will award The Henry Harkins Resident Prizes, and the updated Rules and Regulations for the Harkins Competition are accessible on the Washington chapter web site at www.wachapteracs.org . As in past years, there will be two Harkins award categories: clinical and basic science. Harkins competition presentations must be 8 minutes long. Please note that if any abstract is selected for either competition, a completed manuscript is due prior to May 31, 2012.

Commission on Cancer Competition

The Committee on Cancer Liaison announces the 2012 Commission on Cancer (CoC) Physician-in-Training Cancer Research Paper Competition. All CoC State Chairs are requested to facilitate a cancer paper competition within their American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Chapter and submit one abstract representing their State Chapter for judging at the national level.  Click HERE for details on the CoC compettion (PDF document).


On behalf of the Program Committee, we look forward to seeing you at the June meeting!

Scott Steele, MD Program Chair WA State Chapter

Lazlo Kiraly, MD Program Chair Oregon Chapter


For more information

Contact Harvey Gail, Oregon ACS Administrator at 503-371-7457.