A new and welcome vigour is evident in surgery, spurred by the enthusiasm of young surgeons and the collaboration of established researchers from other disciplines. In today's issue of The Lancet, the sixth annual surgery-themed issue published to coincide with the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress (in San Francisco, CA, on Oct 26—30, 2014), we present recent developments in surgical research and consider how they might influence the conference theme: the surgeon of the future. The Royal College of Surgeons of England has also examined the changing role and responsibilities of surgeons in Good Surgical Practice, published on Aug 29.
A similar document, Good Medical Practice, was updated by the UK General Medical Council in 2013 to show the behaviour expected of any doctor registered with the Council. Whereas the General Medical Council took a philosophical approach to…
