Dear Colleagues: A change in culture is one of the most difficult tasks to achieve within any organization.  In 2004 our specialty, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, chose to hold ourselves accountable for the quality and safety of our work.  Both the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) forged this commitment to safety by establishing separate accreditation programs in our specialty: the ASMBS Bariatric Centers of Excellence Program (ASMBS BSCOE) and the ACS Bariatric Surgery Center Network (ACS BSCN). These two programs helped improve the mortality from bariatric surgery to only 0.06%...