As the premier surgical education event for The House of Surgery®, Clinical Congress provides valuable information and perspectives for surgeons across disciplines. Some of the most valuable lessons at this year’s meeting, however, may come from outside their own specialties.
Clinical Congress 2026 includes more than 40 sessions in the Multidisciplinary Track, ranging from cross-specialty clinical care to nonclinical topics that affect all surgeons. This diverse selection of multidisciplinary discussions is a distinctive feature of the meeting.
“As a urologist, I get most of my specialty-specific education at our national meeting, but there are so many great things that come only at Clinical Congress—topics I call ‘surgery in general,’ as opposed to ‘general surgery,’” said ACS Regent Joshua A. Broghammer, MD, FACS.
“Perioperative management, what’s new in antibiotics, what surgeons are doing for postoperative care, and perspectives on surgical education. Those are things the specialty meetings don’t focus on as much, but that we do find at Clinical Congress, which is why this meeting is so important for all surgeons,” he said.
Panel Sessions, Meet-the-Expert Sessions (additional registration fee required), Scientific Forum Sessions, and other offerings cover issues that extend beyond specialty boundaries and are relevant to all surgeons.
Multidisciplinary Clinical Care
Clinical sessions that incorporate multiple disciplines or focus on issues with cross-specialty relevance include:
- Multidisciplinary Advances in Precision Laser Surgery Across Luminal Systems: Urologic, Biliary, and Airway Applications
- Modern Dilemmas in Pediatric Injury Care: Trauma Truths and Tough Calls
- Surgical Site Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance: Are We Losing the Fight?
- Management of Urinary Retention After Surgery: Pre-Urology Intervention Strategies
- Surgical Application of Artificial Intelligence/Computer Vision in the OR
- Innovations and Advances in Telehealth for Surgeons
Nonclinical Topics Span the Spectrum
Nonclinical sessions will explore resilience, advocacy, navigating health systems, and balancing professional and personal lives. Highlights include:
Sustainability in the Operating Room
This Panel Session will cover the ACS sustainability position statement, the ACS SUSTAIN Collaborative (Surgical Sustainability Team for Action and Innovation), strategies for optimizing surgical procedure preference cards, and the intersection of quality care, sustainability, and reducing healthcare costs.
Beyond Burnout: Restoring Purpose, Autonomy, and Joy in Surgical Practice
This panel brings together diverse perspectives to explore strategies for restoring meaning, autonomy, and joy in surgical practice. Topics will include minimizing moral injury, using volunteerism for personal and professional renewal, the growing appeal of locum tenens as a flexible practice model, and ways surgeons can assert their value in a healthcare system increasingly driven by metrics.
Academic Publishing, Peer Review, and Editorial Board Insights: Perspectives from the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons*
Led by Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS, MBA, FACS, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, this session will offer guidance on academic publishing, peer review, and editorial boards. Participants also will have the opportunity to ask questions about best practices for submitting research for publication.
Utilization of AI in Patient Education 2026: Challenges, Opportunities, and Pitfalls
This session will look at how AI-powered platforms could support personalized, accessible, and adaptive patient education, along with the challenges and risks of using these tools.
Whether the focus is “surgery in general” or a specific clinical challenge, the Multidisciplinary Track offers insights surgeons can apply in their own practices.
