Building the House of Surgical Education: The Legacy of Dr. Ajit Sachdeva — Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

What does it take to build a national surgical education apparatus from scratch? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Ajit Sachdeva, the former Senior Vice President for Education at the American College of Surgeons—a role he held for 24 years before passing the torch in fall 2025. When Dr. Sachdeva arrived at the ACS in 2001, there was no division, no script, and almost no structure. Over the course of his tenure, he created an ecosystem that now touches surgeons at every stage of their careers, from the first year of medical school to the last year of practice.
Dr. Sachdeva reflects on competence, excellence, and the value of surgical educators. He discusses the structural shifts that have shaped modern surgical training, including simulation standards, competency-based curricula, the ACS Accredited Education Institutes, and the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. He also shares his thoughts on the challenges that remain: resource constraints, the tension between clinical productivity and educational investment, and the gap between national standard-setting and local implementation.
Join hosts Pooja Varman, MD, Judith French, PhD, and Jeremy Lipman, MD, MHPE to reflect on Dr. Sachdeva’s impact on surgical education.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this episode, listeners will be able to
1. Distinguish between competence, proficiency, expertise, and mastery in the context of surgical training and career development.
2. Identify key structural initiatives from the ACS Division of Education and describe their impact on surgical education at the national level.
3. Discuss the challenges of sustaining and funding surgical education infrastructure and articulate strategies for aligning educational goals with institutional priorities.

References

1. ACS Accredited Education Institutes: https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/education/programs/accredited-education-institutes/
2. Dr. Ajit Sachdeva Describes a Career of Distinction in Practice and Surgical Education | ACS. Accessed March 27, 2026. https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/acs-brief/october-21-2025-issue/dr-ajit-sachdeva-describes-a-career-of-distinction-in-practice-and-surgical-education/