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Purpose <p>The United States faces a projected shortage of physicians, including surgeons, with the greatest impact expected in rural and underserved communities. Increasing diversity within the physician workforce improves patient outcomes and reduces health disparities, yet students from historically underrepresented backgrounds continue to face barriers to pursuing medical careers, including limited early exposure to healthcare professions. Pathway programs have emerged to address these gaps, but many lack scalable models and practical guidance for implementation. This study describes the development and evolution of the Association for Surgical Education’s (ASE) Finding Aspiring Surgeons of Tomorrow (FAST) program and provides a framework for implementing similar surgical pathway initiatives.</p> Methods <p>The ASE Committee on Citizenship and Global Responsibility developed FAST, a national high school outreach initiative designed to introduce students to surgical careers through hands-on educational experiences. This paper outlines the program’s planning, logistics, execution, lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement.</p> Results <p>FAST has expanded into a multi-station interactive event engaging approximately 80–150 students and 30–50 volunteers annually. Activities include surgical simulation, suturing and knot-tying instruction, anatomy demonstrations, and discussions of healthcare career pathways, among others. Sustainable funding, structured volunteer coordination, and early engagement with local schools and surgeons were critical to successful implementation.</p> Conclusions <p>The ASE FAST events represent one of the earliest and largest national efforts to directly engage high school students with surgeons across a wide range of clinical specialties, unified by a commitment to education. We hope that organizations seeking to establish their own pathway programs may find substantial value in the tools, structures, and lessons learned from the ASE FAST model. Ultimately, diversifying the physician workforce is essential to improving care delivery and advancing health equity, and pathway programs such as FAST play a critical role in supporting learners who are most vulnerable and historically marginalized.</p>

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Finding aspiring surgeons of tomorrow (FAST): a decade of lessons learned building a national surgical pathway program

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月20日

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  • Christie L. Buonpane,
  • Sabrina E. Sanchez,
  • Olabisi O. Sheppard,
  • Mikayla L. Deckard,
  • Jennifer N. Kreinik,
  • Tania K. Arora

摘要

Purpose

The United States faces a projected shortage of physicians, including surgeons, with the greatest impact expected in rural and underserved communities. Increasing diversity within the physician workforce improves patient outcomes and reduces health disparities, yet students from historically underrepresented backgrounds continue to face barriers to pursuing medical careers, including limited early exposure to healthcare professions. Pathway programs have emerged to address these gaps, but many lack scalable models and practical guidance for implementation. This study describes the development and evolution of the Association for Surgical Education’s (ASE) Finding Aspiring Surgeons of Tomorrow (FAST) program and provides a framework for implementing similar surgical pathway initiatives.

Methods

The ASE Committee on Citizenship and Global Responsibility developed FAST, a national high school outreach initiative designed to introduce students to surgical careers through hands-on educational experiences. This paper outlines the program’s planning, logistics, execution, lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement.

Results

FAST has expanded into a multi-station interactive event engaging approximately 80–150 students and 30–50 volunteers annually. Activities include surgical simulation, suturing and knot-tying instruction, anatomy demonstrations, and discussions of healthcare career pathways, among others. Sustainable funding, structured volunteer coordination, and early engagement with local schools and surgeons were critical to successful implementation.

Conclusions

The ASE FAST events represent one of the earliest and largest national efforts to directly engage high school students with surgeons across a wide range of clinical specialties, unified by a commitment to education. We hope that organizations seeking to establish their own pathway programs may find substantial value in the tools, structures, and lessons learned from the ASE FAST model. Ultimately, diversifying the physician workforce is essential to improving care delivery and advancing health equity, and pathway programs such as FAST play a critical role in supporting learners who are most vulnerable and historically marginalized.