APDS & ARAS members who join our community gain access to tremendous resources, educational and networking opportunities:

  • Surgical Education Week discounts
  • Award opportunities
  • Residents seeking positions, open professional positions and open training positions
  • Program Director Handbook
  • Guide to Resident Quality Improvement Projects
  • Access to the APDS and ARAS listservs
  • And more!

The Association of Program Directors in Surgery was founded in 1977 with the purposes of:

  • Providing a forum for the exchange of information and for discussion on a wide range of subjects related to post-graduate surgical education
  • Maintaining high standards of surgical residency training by improving graduate surgical education and patient care
  • Providing advice, assistance, and support to program directors and residency administrators on matters pertaining to surgical education and to accreditation
  • Encouraging research into all aspects of the education and training of surgeons and surgical subspecialties
  • Representing the interests of program directors in the education and training of high quality surgeons to other organizations, individuals and governmental agencies or regulatory bodies

Membership dues are payable once application is approved. Applications are approved on a monthly rolling basis. ​

Active Program Directors – $425
Membership is limited to one officially designated program director of general surgery residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada per each accredited residency program. 

Active Associate Program Directors – $250
Membership is limited to four officially designated Associate/Assistant Program Directors, of general surgery residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada per each accredited residency program. If there are more than four Associate Program Directors for a Surgery Residency program, the respective Program Director will be responsible for identifying which four Associate Program Directors should be designated at Active Associate Program Directors. 

Affiliate - $250
Individuals with interest in surgical education:  Examples include: teaching faculty members, Fellowship Directors, Department Chairpersons, Program Directors of other surgical subspecialty programs, Surgical Educators, Research Scientists and others who have demonstrated and have a focused interest in general surgery education.

​Residency Administrators (ARAS) – $250
Full membership in the Association of Residency Administrators in Surgery is limited to officially designated general surgery residency program coordinators, administrators and managers or other surgical subspecialty program coordinators. By virtue of being a full member of ARAS, that same individual shall be a member of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery.

Resident – $75
Active Program and Associate Program Directors may nominate general surgical residents in good standing participating in an ACGME approved residency program for resident membership. 

Senior Member (retired, age >70) – $0
Any Program Director or Associate Member who has reached the age of 70 and/or has retired from active practice is eligible to apply for senior member status. 

APDS is pleased to offer discounted membership dues for members identified by the World Bank Classification as
Low Income
Lower Middle Income
Upper Middle Income

View APDS Discounted Dues by Country