ACCESS TO SURGERY FOR KIDS
APSA Committees carry out a number of different critical functions for the association.
General surgeons in the US and Canada in rural and underserved areas who take care of pediatric patients are eligible to receive subscriptions to ExPERT and NaT for a discounted fee of $50.
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Vision Statement
The vision of the ASK Committee is to improve surgical care for children in communities that lack pediatric surgical specialists by partnering with the broader community of health care providers who care for children.
Our Mission Statement
The mission of the ASK APSA is to develop systems of high quality and sustainable care for children in rural and underserved environments with no immediate access to pediatric surgical specialists. We achieve this by engaging rural, community, and military surgeons in an ongoing dialogue, helping APSA members share their pediatric surgical expertise and guidance with their regions, and promoting two-way communication with experts and patients transfers as needed. Our goal is to ensure that children without immediate access to pediatric surgeons receive optimal care based on local resources and provider scope of practice.
We accomplish this mission through:
- Engagement: Liaising with surgeons and surgical sub-specialists outside of APSA through professional societies for pediatrics, trauma, acute care surgery, military surgeons, and rural surgery
- Knowledge sharing: Disseminating pediatric surgical best practices to general surgeons using innovative health communication techniques to promote community engagement.
- Pediatric-specific training: Promoting the inclusion of pediatric-specific curricula in the training programs of acute care, rural, and military surgeons.
- Gap analysis: Identifying and being a resource to communities underserved by pediatric surgical specialists, and helping pediatric surgeons support general surgeons in their surrounding communities