American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a professional medical association for surgeons and surgical team members, founded in 1913 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with roughly ninety five thousand members across one hundred and forty four countries. It functions as an educational and professional credentialing body for the surgical field, governed by a Board of Regents that sets policy and a Board of Governors that liaises with members, supported by local ACS chapters. Its best known credential, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, certifies a surgeon who has met a defined set of standards for education, qualification, and ethics. The college grew out of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America and the journal Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, both associated with its founder, Franklin H. Martin.