Quality and safety initiatives in the future practice of surgery: meeting patient demands for enhanced professionalism.

This article is based on a speech that Thomas R. Russell, MD, FACS, Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons, delivered to the Japan Surgical Society in May 2008, which centered on quality of care and patient safety issues and their relationship to professionalism. The article provides a brief overview of the American and Japanese health care systems, outlines the quality and safety issues facing our health care systems, and addresses the changes that need to occur within surgery's professional culture in order to improve patient care. In addition, he explains what the American College of Surgeons is doing to advance quality, safety, and professionalism.