Mark W. Allam Lecture:

Hiram C. Polk, MD, FACS
5:30pm - 6:45pm, Thursday, October 23

"The Advantages and Pitfalls of Superspecialty Certification"

ACVS is pleased to announce that the 2008 Mark W. Allam Lecture will be given by Dr. Hiram C. Polk, Jr.  Dr. Polk is native of Jackson, Mississippi and alumnus of Millsaps College and Harvard Medical School. He is the Ben A. Reid, Jr. Professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville and served as the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University from 1971-2005. Notable advances that occurred under his chairmanship include the development and first implantation of the Abiocore artificial heart and the organization of one of the world's first hand transplant programs. While Chairman at Louisville, Dr. Polk trained more than 230 surgical residents, all of whom hold board certification in general surgery. Some of the surgical residents have become academic surgery chairmen at medical schools in the United States.

Dr. Polk is known for his pioneering research on proper surgical antibiotic use to reduce surgical site infections, burn care, concepts in treatment of malignant melanoma, surgical oncology, hiatal hernia treatment, trauma surgery and systems development, and many contributions in the development of contemporary surgical training methods and models.

Additionally, Dr. Polk is a figure well-known in the Thoroughbred horse racing industry. He is a member of the Graysen Jockey Club and a former director of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The Mark W. Allam Lecture is named for the late Dean Emeritus of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Allam was a co-founder of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. He was an avid proponent of the concept of “one medicine” – the idea that the similarities between human and animal medicine are great and that these two fields can benefit considerably from the discoveries made in each field. The Lecture was instituted to foster this concept and has been given annually since 1972.