USA's Dr. Joe Cofer Elected Vice-Chair of American Board of Surgery

Chattanooga, Tenn. (Aug. 12, 2011) -- University Surgical Associates (USA), the region’s largest surgical specialty practice, announced Dr. Joseph B. Cofer's recent election as Vice-Chairman of the American Board of Surgery (ABS). Dr. Cofer will serve as vice-chair from 2012-2013, then as chair from 2013-2014. He was elected to the ABS in 2007 as a representative of the Southeastern Surgical Congress and is the first director elected from Chattanooga.  

The ABS is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1937 to certify surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training and knowledge. Surgeons certified by the ABS, known as diplomats, have completed at least five years of surgical residency training following medical school and successfully completed a written and oral examination process administered by the ABS. The ABS offers board certification in general surgery (also just called "surgery"), vascular surgery, pediatric surgery, surgical critical care, surgery of the hand, hospice and palliative medicine, and complex general surgical oncology.

Directors of the American Board of Surgery are elected for a single six-year term from ABS nominating organizations or through an at-large process. They are distinguished surgeons in education, research, and practice in the United States. ABS directors hold current time-limited certificates and receive no remuneration for their service. The ABS also has one public member, elected by open nomination.

The ABS was organized on January 9, 1937, and formally chartered on July 19, 1937. Its formation was the result of a committee created a year earlier by the American Surgical Association, with representatives from the American Medical Association, American College of Surgeons and the Western, Southern, New England and Pacific Coast Surgical Associations, to establish a certification process and national certifying body for surgeons practicing in the U.S. The leaders of these organizations felt surgery had matured into a full-time specialty and recognized the need to differentiate well-trained surgeons from doctors in general practice.

The committee decided that the ABS should be formed of members from the represented organizations and, once organized, it would establish a comprehensive certification process. These findings and recommendations were approved by the cooperating societies, leading to the board's formation in 1937. This was done to protect the public and improve the specialty.

Dr. Cofer is a board certified general surgeon with special interests in surgery of the gall bladder, liver, bile duct, pancreas and breast. He also serves as a professor of surgery at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga, as well as surgery residency program director for the university's Department of Surgery.

Dr. Cofer earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee (Memphis) in 1978 and went on to complete an internship in basic surgery at Portsmouth Naval Hospital (Portsmouth, Va.) in 1980; Naval Flight Surgeon Training for the U.S. Navy (Pensacola, Fl.) in 1981; and a research fellowship in general surgery (1983) and residency in general surgery (1988) at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga. In 1990 he completed a transplant surgery fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center (Dallas, Tx.).

Through the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, Dr. Cofer was instrumental in creating the community assistance program “Project Access,” and serves as chair of the Operations Council overseeing the program’s development. Project Access assists those Hamilton County residents whose family income is below 150-percent of the poverty level and those who do not have other insurance, or are not eligible for other coverage, such as TennCare.