Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons
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Practice Guideline Guideline
Physician qualifications for stereotactic breast biopsy: a revised statement. American College of Surgeons and American College of Radiology.
Following review and approval by both the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology (ACR), the guidelines document Physician Qualifications for Stereotactic Breast Biopsy was published in the September 1997 issue of the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons. Several ACS Fellows subsequently contacted the College to suggest revisions to the document that significantly clarify the requirements and delineate the additional clinical skills that should be required for radiologists practicing independently. ⋯ The revised document was approved by both of those bodies in February of this year and is presented here in its entirety. Changes to the text are printed in italics.
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From 1980 to 1996, 334,597 certificates were issued by the 24 specialty boards. Of these certificates, 164,728 (49.2%) were issued in primary care specialties, 100,981 (30.2%) were certificates in the other medical specialties, and 68,888 (20.5%) were certificates in the surgical specialties. The figure above illustrates the changes that have occurred in the pool of board-certified physicians from 1980 to 1996. ⋯ By 1996, surgical specialty certificates accounted for 16.7 percent of the 26,462 certificates issued by the 24 boards. In 1980, 1986, 1989, 1995, and 1996 primary care specialty certificates accounted for more than 50 percent of the total number of certificates issued by the 24 specialty boards in those years. Given the substantial growth in the number of certificates in the primary care and other medical specialties depicted in the figure, certificates in the surgical specialties as a percentage of the total number of certificates has remained stable.