Lifelong surgical education: adapt, change, or wither.

M r Chairman, members, and guests, thank you for the privilege of presenting the 22nd Samuel Jason Mixter Lecture. I first attended the New England Surgical Society in 1974 as a resident at the Brigham, so I was here before the Mixter Lecture by 10 years! Samuel Jason Mixter was president of this organization in 1917, followed by his presidency of the American Surgical Association in 1918. He was the Chief of Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital within the Harvard Medical School, having been educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. Previous Mixter lecturers are indeed a distinguished group beginning with Lord Rodney Smith in 1985 and covering many of the leaders of American surgery. It is, therefore, a distinct privilege to be invited to give this lecture.