BANGOR – Dr. William Horner has been elected president of the Maine Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, an education and public policy group that supports surgical practice.

Horner said he will use his yearlong term as president to advance the practice of “evidence-based” medicine in Maine – a model that challenges physicians to practice according to research findings and not by outdated knowledge or habit.

To contribute to the body of evidence available to surgeons, Horner plans to coordinate a study of gastric-bypass surgery as a treatment for obesity in Maine. By compiling data from surgeons and institutions across the state over the one-year period, the study will establish how physicians identify appropriate candidates for the stomach-stapling operation, the most common surgical procedures, and models for tracking the long-term outcomes of patients. The data from Maine will be compared to national standards, Horner said.

Horner, a partner at Northeast Surgery on State Street, has practiced general surgery at Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor for 14 years, with a subspecialty in breast surgery.