American College of Surgeons - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Candidates for Fellowship g of the fact and an opportunity is given him to supply the omissions. Throughout its dealings with the candidate the central office endeavors to simplify the routine as much as possible, and to aid each appUcant for membership in his task of furnishing satisfactory evidence of his qualifications. 11. Occasionally complaints are filed in the central office against what is considered unnecessary red tape in determining a candidate ' s qualifications for Fellowship. It is absolutely necessary that the uniform regulations formulated for the admis- sion of candidates by the executive offices after several years of experience should be disinterestedly observed. Even though the candidate may appear most worthy to the officials of the College, short-cut methods cannot be employed without subjecting the Committee to severe criticism and lessening the judicial standing of the College. 12. The central office for obvious reasons must decline to furnish information about a candidate ' s appHcation to other than the candidate himself. 13. Any candidate who is rejected, or whose candidature is delayed, may make a direct appeal to the Board of Regents for information. 14. The State and Provincial Committees on Credentials of the College are elected by the Fellows in the respective states and provinces, one-half of the membership being retired at each yearly election. The Central Committee on Credentials is appointed by the Board of Regents, and is changed from year to year. PAN-AMERICAN PROGRESS In the Spring of 1920, Dr. W. J. Mayo, ex-President, and the Director General of the College visited Panama, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay in behalf of the American College of Siu-geons. The 1921 Year Book of the College contains an outline of the affiliation between the surgeons of South and North America which resulted from this trip.

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8 American College of Surgeons required to submit case histories are notified of the requirements for Fellowship on that basis. 6. According to a resolution adopted by the Board of Regents on October 28, 1921, all applicants for Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons whose appUcations shall bear a date later than January i, 1923, will be required to furnish the Committee on Examinations fifty complete case-records of major surgical opera- tions. AppUcants over forty years of age may have the histories of these operations prepared by assistants. 7. When case-records are received from a candidate they are referred to the Committee on History Reviews. This Committee is comprised of a group of competent surgeon s who volunteer to serve in the capacity of examiners, and who spend many hours in the execution of their task. After each set of records has been carefully reviewed by the Committee, a summary of the findings with the recommendation signed by the examiner is attached to the records for the guidance of the Central Committee on Cre- dentials, 8. All accumulated evidence that has come into the executive ofl ces is finally brought before the Central Committee on Creden- tials. This Committee, as the higher court, peruses in detail the records of each candidate, sifts all the evidence on file in regard to his qualifications, and makes its recommendation. 9. One of three recommendations is made by the Central Com- mittee: Acceptance, rejection, or postponement. An application may be postponed to enable the executive offices to secure further evidence of the candidate ' s fitness or unfitness for Fellowship; to afford the candidate an opportunity to correct or elaborate his records, which may have been lacking in some particulars; or to give the candidate an opportunity to prove that he is doing a sufficient amount of surgery to entitle him to Fellowship. 10. The central office endeavors to give every candidate for Fellowship such information as will aid him in completing his records. If his case-records are lacking in any essential which in the judgment of the Committee can be corrected, he is notified

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lo American College of Surgeons The Director General again journeyed to South America in the Spring of 192 1, on this occasion accompanied by Dr. Thomas J. Watkins of Chicago, a Governor of the College. In addition to the countries which were visited the previous year the itinerary included the United States of Brazil, and was supplemented by a visit to the Republics of Ecuador and Bolivia by Dr. Francis P. Corrigan of Cleveland, Ohio, as official representative of the College. The medical profession of South America was found to be both ready and wilhng to affiliate with the American College of Surgeons, and the representatives of the College received a most cordial reception at the hands of their southern confreres. Thirty-five South American surgeons were admitted to Fellowship at the 1920 Convocation in Montreal; at the 1921 Convocation held in Philadelphia, Fellowships were conferred upon fifty-four candi- dates, five of these being from Argentina, three from Bolivia, twenty-three from Brazil, ten from Chile, four from Ecuador, one from Peru, and eight from Uruguay. A number of leading South American surgeons were recom- mended by the Board of Regents for Honorary Fellowship of the College, and four of them received this degree at the Philadel- phia Convocation. Because of the ruling established by the Board of Regents that Honorary Fellowships shall not be conferred in absentia, several distinguished South American surgeons who were selected for this honor will receive the honorary degree at a future Convocation. Committees on Credentials have been appointed in each of the seven countries in which there are Fellows of the College, and a number of applications for Fellowship from surgeons in these coimtries are now on file and under consideration for future membership. It is contemplated that the Latin American countries with which we do not have an affiliation at the present time shall be visited at as early a date as possible in order that the College may be truly Pan-American in its scope. In our work of extending Fellowship to South American surgeons we have had the most hearty cooperation of the South