In this episode, Lillian Erdahl, MD, FACS, is joined by Pringl Miller, MD, FACS, from Physican Just Equity, and Christine Heisler, MD, FACS, from the Mayo Clinic Health System. They discuss Drs Miller and Heisler’s recent article, “Whether and How Surgeons Took Action Against Workplace Microaggression: Survey of American College of Surgeons Members,” in which the authors found that the most frequent perpetrator roles were surgeon colleagues and supervisors. A total of 57.4% of surgeons took action, with informal reporting to a colleague and/or directly confronting the perpetrator being most common actions taken. Surgeons who took action were less likely to choose a career in surgery again.

Disclosure Information: Drs Erdahl, Miller, and Heisler have nothing to disclose.

To earn 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for this episode of the JACS Operative Word Podcast, click here to register for the course and complete the evaluation. Listeners can earn CME credit for this podcast for up to 2 years after the original air date.

Heisler, Christine A MD, MS, FACS; Godecker, Amy L PhD, MS; Verran, Deborah MbChB, MHSM; Sinha, Michael S MD, JD, MPH; Byam, Jerome MD; Miller, Pringl MD, FACS. Whether and How Surgeons Took Action Against Workplace Microaggression: Survey of the American College of Surgeons Members. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 242(2):p 390-400, February 2026. | DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000001648

Related work:

Primary Study: Heisler CA, Godecker AL, Verran D, Sinha MS, Byam J, Miller P. Workplace microaggressions: results of a survey of the American College of Surgeons members. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2024 Aug;231(2):265.e1-265.e8.

Secondary Study: Heisler CA, Godecker AL, Verran D, Sinha MS, Byam J, Miller P. Impact of Workplace Microaggressions on Surgeon Career Status and Trajectory: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study. Accepted to the Annals of Surgery Open on April 30, 2026.

The secondary study was also presented at ACS Clinical Congress 2024:

Heisler CA, Godecker A, Verran D, Sinha MS, Byam J, Miller P. Workplace Microaggressions and the Impact on a Surgeon’s Career Trajectory: Results of a Survey of the American College of Surgeons Members. J Am Coll Surg. October 2024;239(5):S138-139.

Learn more about the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, a monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing original contributions on all aspects of surgery, including scientific articles, collective reviews, experimental investigations, and more.

#JACSOperativeWord

In this episode, Thomas K Varghese, Jr, MD, FACS, is joined by Carrie Chan, MSN, MPH, from the University of California, San Francisco, and Karthik Balakrishnan, MD, FACS, from Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. They discuss their recent article,“Development, Validation, and Comparison of Machine Learning Models for Predicting Pediatric Surgical Site Infections Using the NSQIP-P Database,” which represents the largest study to date on predicting pediatric surgical site infection. The authors developed machine-learning models and ultimately recommend a regularized logistic regression model for clinical integration, balancing performance and feasibility for implementation. Findings support using routine preoperative data for personalized infection prevention and preoperative planning.

Disclosure Information: Ms Chan and Drs Varghese and Balakrishnan have nothing to disclose.

To earn 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for this episode of the JACS Operative Word Podcast, click here to register for the course and complete the evaluation. Listeners can earn CME credit for this podcast for up to 2 years after the original air date.

Chan, Carrie T MSN, MPH; Pletcher, Mark J MD, MPH; Balakrishnan, Karthik MD, MPH, FACS; Hswen, Yulin ScD, MPH; Scheffler, Aaron PhD, MS. Development, Validation, and Comparison of Machine Learning Models for Predicting Pediatric Surgical Site Infections Using the NSQIP-P Database. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 242(3):p 712-722, March 2026. | DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000001683

Learn more about the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, a monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing original contributions on all aspects of surgery, including scientific articles, collective reviews, experimental investigations, and more.

#JACSOperativeWord

In this episode, Thomas K Varghese, Jr, MD, FACS, is joined by Laurie J Kirstein, MD, FACS, from Memorial Sloan Kettering. They discuss Dr Kirstein’s recent article, “Results of an American College of Surgeons Prospective National Quality Improvement Collaborative to Successfully Overcome Barriers to Cancer Care Across the US,” in which 194 American College of Surgeons (ACS)-accredited cancer programs caring for 99,057 patients participated in a National Quality Improvement Collaborative led by the ACS, “Breaking Barriers,” which reduced radiotherapy non-adherence by over 30% at the patient and hospital levels across multiple program types, census regions, and disease sites.

Disclosure Information: Drs Varghese and Kirstein have nothing to disclose.

To earn 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for this episode of the JACS Operative Word Podcast, click here to register for the course and complete the evaluation. Listeners can earn CME credit for this podcast for up to 2 years after the original air date.

Chan, Kelley MD, MS; Reilly, Eileen MSW; Janczewski, Lauren M MD, MS; Gentry, Sharon MSN, RN; Biggins, Camille MHA; Haffty, Bruce MD; Shelton, Charles MD; Yang, Anthony D MD, MS, FACS; Weigel, Ronald J MD, PhD, MBA, FACS; Kirstein, Laurie J MD, FACS. Results of an American College of Surgeons Prospective National Quality Improvement Collaborative to Successfully Overcome Barriers to Cancer Care Across the US. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 242(1):p 247-256, January 2026. | DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000001637

Learn more about the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, a monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing original contributions on all aspects of surgery, including scientific articles, collective reviews, experimental investigations, and more.

#JACSOperativeWord