The SAGES/ACS Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) Program is celebrating two major milestones in 2015 with the opening of International FLS Test Centers in France and Saudi Arabia and having issued a landmark 10,000 FLS certifications. These remarkable achievements follow on the heels of the FLS program’s 10-year anniversary last October.
- Expanding FLS training and certification beyond North America has been a main focus in recent years. The newly established test centers at  IHU Strasbourg-IRCAD in Strasbourg, France and King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will help address the growing international demand for a reliable and valid process for testing of competence in basic laparoscopy. View the full article here.
According to Dr. Allan Okrainec, FLS Committee Co-chair, “these new Test Centers, along with our Test Centers already up and running in Singapore (Khoo Teck Puat Hospital) and Israel (Bnai-Zion Medical Center), will further elevate the standards of training for laparoscopic surgeons, enhancing operating performance worldwide.”
SAGES congratulates Dr. Christopher Crawford on becoming the 10,000th surgeon to successfully complete the FLS Program! Dr. Crawford is a chief resident in general surgery at Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin and a SAGES Candidate Member. Upon completing his residency, he will continue his training at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s MIS Fellowship Program.
For a complete list of individuals who have successfully completed the FLS program, please visit the FLS Registry. For more information about FLS visit www.flsprogram.org.
