Famous US educational association opens a chapter in Kurdistan Region

The American College of Surgeons (ACS), a well-known surgical organization in the world, has opened its chapter in Kurdistan Region. The ACS has 52 International Chapters, and Kurdistan is its 53rd.

At its annual congress in San Diego, California the ACS officially announced the establishment of a chapter in the Kurdistan Region, and Dr. Abdulla Abdulla Saeed was appointed as ACS governor representing the newly established ACS Kurdistan chapter, and Dr. Sadiq Aziz Khoshnaw was then elected as president of the chapter.

Dr. Gazi B. Zibari, who was an ACS member and has served as governor and as past president of the ACS Chapter in Louisiana, expressed his gratefulness for ACS to open its chapter in Kurdistan Region.

“I am very grateful for the American College of Surgeons’ leadership to approve the creation of ACS Chapter in Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq,” he said.

“When I visited Kurdistan in 1992, I found that the American College of Surgeons had no fellows in Kurdistan. Our surgeons in Kurdistan have been trying to establish a chapter of this surgical scientific organization, and now it has about 40 fellows in Kurdistan,” Zibari added and noted, “It’s a great victory for all surgeons in Kurdistan.”

Although the Baghdad government tried to prevent ACS from opening its chapter in Kurdistan, but their efforts were failed, according to Zibari.

Moreover, Zibari explained that the opening of such a chapter establishes a stronger relationship between Surgeons in Kurdistan and US, as well as improves the outcome and quality of surgical patient care in Kurdistan Region.

Zibari considers the opening of the ACS chapter as “A victory of all people of Kurdistan and their Peshmerga.”

Chicago-based ACS is 100 years old, and it “is dedicated to improving the care of surgical patients and safeguarding standards of care,” as the organization explains on its website. It has an extensive library of educational resources and has pioneered quality surgical care and patient outcome worldwide.