ISS/SIC Newsletter December 2022

International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC)

December 2022

Note by the ISS/SIC President

Cheng-Har Yip, President ISS/SIC & Congress President ISW 2024

Dear Colleagues, I am honored to be your President from 2022 to 2024.

First, I would like to acknowledge John Hunter, the Past-President of the ISS/ SIC, who managed to keep the society going through the surreal Covid pandemic, which shut down the whole world for over two years.

If anything, the Covid pandemic has taught us the power of the Internet.

We held virtual Council meetings despite the Council members being from all corners of the world with different time zones. ISS/SIC had a successful Virtual Surgical Week VSW 2021 in August 2021, when it was clear that the International Surgical Week ISW 2021 in Kuala Lumpur would not be possible as Malaysia was still in lockdown. International Surgical Week was canceled for the second time due to

International Surgical Week ISW 2022 at Hofburg, Vienna.

the viral epidemic. The first cancellation was the International Surgical Week ISW 2003 in Bangkok due to the SARS pandemic, which luckily did not last as long.

The world emerged from the Covid lockdown and held the face-to-face International Surgical Week ISW 2022 in Vienna, thanks to the efforts of Albert Tuchmann, whom I would like to acknowledge here as well. Despite parts of the world, particularly Hong Kong and China, which still had travel restrictions, the conference was successfully held with almost 900 participants.

Because of the Covid pandemic, the previous ISS/SIC Council members served three years instead of two years. I want to thank the outgoing members of the council, Andrew Hill, Hisham Abdullah, Italo Braghetto, and the Immediate Past Presid ents of the Integrated Societies; Akira Miyauchi (IAES), Elmin Steyn (IATSIC), Anders Thorell (IASMEN), Gaurav Agarwal (BSI), Alessandro Fichera (ISDS) and

Russell Gruen (ASAP) for their services. I want to introduce our new council for 2022 to 2024. The Officers comprise the President, President-Elect Ari Leppäniemi, Immediate Past-President John G. Hunter, Treasurer Gerard Doherty, and Secretary General Kenneth Boffard. The Councillors-at-Large are Hiroyuki Konno, Albert Tuchmann, April Camilla Roslani, and Susan Hill. The Presidents of the Integrated Societies; are Jan Zedenius (IAES), Scott D'Amours (IATSIC), Steven Wolf (IASMEN), Owen Ung (BSI), Jamie Murphy (ISDS), and Russell Gruen “Acting” (ASAP). Also in the Council are Julie Ann Sosa, Editor in Chief of the WJS, Michael G. Sarr, Secretary-Treasurer International Society of Surgery Foundation (ISSF), and Peter Vogelbach, President of the ISS Foundation for Global Surgical Care (FGSC) about which, more later.

The ISS/SIC Council members come from all corners of the world, with four women members, demonstrating the commit-

ment of ISS/SIC to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As President, I will continue to uphold the ISS/SIC's mission to advance the science and art of surgery worldwide. The goal of the society is to work for international teaching of both general and specialized surgery across the world, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The biennial International Surgical Week ISW brings surgeons globally to present the latest advances in surgery through plenary lectures, symposia, debates, forums, and workshops. During International Surgical Week, through its Integrated Societies, we continue to organize workshops and teaching sessions in different parts of the world, particularly in low and middle-income countries. During the Covid Pandemic, webinars were successfully organized, and these activities were essential in keeping in touch with our members and introducing ISS/SIC to potential members.

ISS/SIC President Cheng-Har Yip at the ISS/SIC General Assembly taking over presidency.

The official journal of ISS/SIC is the World Journal of Surgery WJS, which has seen an increase in the Impact Factor over the past two years to 3.352 in 2022, thanks to the Editorial team's efforts ably led by Editor-in-Chief Julie Ann Sosa. WJS receives submissions from all over the world, p articularly from Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), and has a special section for Surgery in LMICs.

The ISS/SIC contract with Springer ends at the end of 2022, and the negotiation for a new contract will be led by our Past-President John Hunter, with extensive experience as Editor in Chief for over ten years.

Over the next two years, I will work with the Council Members and the Integrated Societies to increase ISS/SIC's worldwide visibility and intensify our drive for new members to add to our current membership. Despite the Pandemic, we saw an increase in active members from 2,083 in February 2020 to 2,431 in August 2022. I would also like to expand our numbers of Fellows (FISS), which was created to recognize those providing the highest standards of surgical practice. I encourage those who have been members for more than five years to apply for FISS on the website at http://iss-sic.com/ membership/fellowship.html.

Before the Covid Pandemic closed borders, ISS/SIC developed partnerships with many

surgical societies worldwide, particularly in LMICs. Members of these Associated Societies were invited to join the ISS/SIC at discounted rates, increasing our membership's diversity. As President, I will continue the efforts started by my predecessors to expand ISS/SIC membership to different parts of the world.

ISS/SIC now has two foundations, the ISS Foundation ISSF, based in the USA, and the Foundation for Global Surgical Care FGSC, based in Switzerland. The role of these foundations is to support the training of international young surgeons, i.e. members of the IASSS International Association of Student Surgical Societies, an Associated Society of the ISS/SIC. Furthermore, the foundations also will support medical students and surgical residents by providing t ravel grants to the International Surgical Week ISW.

ISS/SIC, in partnership with the G4 Alliance, launched the Suva Guidelines for Quality Safe Surgery, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anesthesia Care: the 11 Best Practice Recommendations at the ISW 2022 in Vienna. These evidence-based guidelines, chaired by ISS/SIC Past President Andrew Hill, were the culmination of 3 years of work, which began with a meeting in Suva, Fiji, in March 2020, just before Covid locked down the world, and continued online after that. ISS/ SIC will continue to support the implemen-

Farewell by the ISS/SIC past President

tation of these guidelines and advocate for global surgery with its partners, aiming to improve global access to surgery and surgical outcomes worldwide.

I want to acknowledge our team from the ISS/SIC Administrative Office in Zurich, Mike Iliopoulos, Chris Storz, Denise Eggler Braun and Laurie Lazaro. They keep the ISS/SIC running smoothly together with our Secretary-General, Ken Boffard.

I look forward to welcoming you to the next International Surgical Week ISW 2024 on 25-29 August 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, my home country. This is an opportunity for surgeons, surgical trainees, and me dical students worldwide to meet and discuss developments and advances in all aspects of surgical practice.

Past Presidents have alluded to the unique nature of the ISS/SIC, in that we have a chance to develop lasting friendships with surgeons from around the world and that ISS/SIC members are based in 120 countries. I indeed found this true when I joined ISS/SIC in 2003.

See you in Malaysia in August 2024.

Cheng-Har Yip President ISS/SIC & Congress President ISW 2024

It is fall in the northern hemisphere, the leaves are turning, the days are getting shorter, and the mornings are getting chillier. Despite this, many of us maintain a warm glow as we remember the remarkable World Congress of Surgery in Vienna some weeks ago. It was indeed warm in Vienna, but the Hofburg was

comfortably cool, and the conference chambers were spectacular. Even more spectacular was the energy of the nearly 900 registrants who brought excitement, innovation, and professional passion to International Surgical Week. From the opening ceremonies, where we were entertained with a Brahm’s violin concerto, to the last session on Thursday, the p articipants were engaged in science, the chance to debate new ideas, and the opportunity to smile and share stories together, IN PERSON. I can’t think of a better way to close the door on the pandemic. Many thanks to all of you who attended. I can’t wait to see you in Kuala Lumpur in 2024!

Brahm’s violin concerto at the Opening Ceremony ISW 2022.

John G. Hunter, past President ISS/ SIC & Congress President ISW 2022

Cheers, John G. Hunter

Past President ISS/SIC & Congress President ISW 2022

Report Secretary-General

Kenneth D. Boffard, Secretary-General ISS/SIC

A very big thank you to all those whose efforts and energies, passion and commitment, resulted in our being able to present a very successful ISW 2022 in V ienna. We were fortunate in having the assistance of Prof Albert Tuchman, the support of the Austrian Society of Surgery, and the leaders in Vienna. With their help at extraordinarily short notice, it was possible to arrange the meeting we have just completed. I hope that those of you who were at the meeting were able to enjoy yourselves and feel that we are back on track. As the world emerges from the pandemic, we look forward to a return to face-to-face contact and fulfilling our role as the Global Surgical Society.

I would like to welcome our new Executive Council led by President Cheng-Har Y ip, and to congratulate our new President-elect, Prof Ari Leppäniemi from F inland. I would also like to thank Prof Andrew Hill, who has now left the Council, but has not lost his passion for global s urgery and particularly for initiating our contacts with our Associated Societies from some resource challenged countries and the fruitful relationships that have arisen from them. Also, real appreciation for our immediate past president John Hunter who has led this organization throughout the pandemic, cancellation or postponement of Surgical Weeks, and all the other positives and negatives which have been part of a tumultuous last 3 years.

We welcome two new Councillors-atL arge: Susan Hill, from the UK, who is our Global Councillor replacing Hisham Abdullah, and April Roslani, from Malaysia, who is replacing Italo Braghetto. We wish them both well.

The societies viability, its ability to reach every country, large or small, rich or

poor, in many ways is due to the foundations laid by our ISS Foundation, ably led by past President Michael Sarr. The foundation has supported various educational initiatives and the Travel Scholars who attend the ISW. Many of you have been able to support the Foundation for which we are most grateful. The decision has been made that although until now a large amount of support has come from the United States, there are many colleagues especially in Europe and outside the United States who should be able to help as well, and for that reason the Global Foundation for Surgical Care has been established as a full foundation of this society, concentrating on Europe and other areas, where tax efficient donations with tax relief are possible. I would like to thank Dr Peter Vogelbach for his efforts in helping us establish this Foundation (many of you will know of him

from the Davos Surgical courses) and he is of course himself a member of this organization. More details will be found elsewhere in this newsletter. I would encourage you, particularly if you can make use of the taxation benefits available to consider giving us support for our efforts to support to improve global surgery.

As we move into the new post pandemic era, it has never been more important for the society to develop its presence across all our member countries, support our members from those countries, and to encourage the development of safe affordable surgery wherever we can.

Thank you for your support as we move forward together

D. Boffard Secretary-General ISS/SIC

Kenneth

ISS/SIC President elect, Ari K. Leppäniemi.

Andrew Hill, Ari Leppäniemi, Gerard Doherty and Ken Boffard at the ISS/SIC General Assembly.

The Foundation for Global Surgical Care of the ISS/SIC (FGSC)

Peter Vogelbach, President FGSC

countries on a broader and also regular scale. The idea is that surgical teams with experience in training in all the different surgical specialties could travel to our partners in different countries and organize workshops and training courses.

With best regards.

Peter Vogelbach President FGSC

Dear colleagues, it is with pleasure that we can inform you that the foundation for global surgical care was founded, within the ISS/SIC by the end of 2021.

The aim of the foundation is to enable surgical training in low- and middle-income

This should be planned and organized together with our delegates in countries, which see a demand in these training courses.

So, please if you have any suggestions or you see demand for local training courses, contact the administrative office or directly Peter Vogelbach, President of the Foundation for Global Surgical Care, peter.vogelbach@gmail.com

Report Editor in Chief WJS

Julie Ann Sosa, Editor in Chief WJS

In action at the Writers’ Workshop at ISW 2022.

Hello and greetings to members of the International Society of Surgery and readers of the World Journal of Surgery (WJS)! Hopefully many of you were able to attend International Surgical Week in Vienna last month to catch up at last with dear friends and colleagues. WJS carried on our popular tradition of sponsoring our Writers’ Workshop for aspiring authors and peer reviewers around the world. Feedback from attendees was excellent for the personalized instruction and mentorship provided by our editorial board members; thanks to all for attending!

The last year has been yet another busy and successful one for WJS! Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our associate editors and editorial board members worked diligently to provide authors with valuable feedback, efficiently, and readers with the very best science from around

the globe. Indeed, 91% of authors surveyed rate their WJS experience as Good or Excellent. We have reduced our time to decision from 49 days in 2017 to 27 days in 2022. We continue to be selective in the articles that we publish, with a 13% acceptance rate for unsolicited submis-

sions and an overall acceptance rate of 21% in 2022.

Journal impact can be measured in many ways. For the first time, WJS exceeded 1 million article downloads in the year (1,090,894), up 28% from 2020; to put

that number in perspective, there were two WJS articles downloaded every minute during 2021, and 79 WJS articles were downloaded more than 1000 times. As many of you will recall, our impact factor in 2020 skyrocketed from 2.234 to 3.352, which was a 46% improvement! In 2021, it remained essentially stable at 3.282, placing WJS at #14 among Google’s Top 20 surgery journals.

This almost certainly is the result of many different active and intentional initiatives developed over the last several years at WJS to position us at the leading edge of innovation among peer-reviewed surgical publications. These include ‘We asked the experts’ reviews, ‘My first paper’ highlights for authors whose first-of-career original manuscript was published in WJS, prioritization of invited commentaries and editorials which are at an all-time high, and our ‘Inspirational women in Surgery’ series that shines a monthly light on extraordinary women surgeons around the globe. Our ‘Inspirational women in Surgery’ feature is the brainchild of Dr George Barreto of Adelaide, South Australia, who was recognized at ISW as our ‘WJS Editor of the Year’. Congratulations, Dr Barreto!

Another likely explanation for our rise in impact factor is our valued affiliation with the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society. Our collaboration with Professor Olle Ljungqvist of Sweden has allowed WJS to publish three different ERAS guidelines in the last year, with another set of guidelines for liver surgery accepted, en-route to publication.

We have worked hard to increase the visibility of WJS across many different dimensions. On social media, more than 1,570 followers have been added to our Twitter account in just the last year, with more than 1.2 million impressions through August 2022. 78% of all published items have been shared on social media, and there have been more social media shares of WJS content than downloads from Springer. An example of the WJS’ social media influence was around the feature below, which was the most shared article in the last 18 months – importantly, with particularly strong engagement from Africa-based accounts that do not normally retweet WJS.

Finally, WJS has doubled down on its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; below is a visual abstract created to celebrate the newest additions to our WJS editorial board in 2022. You will see spectacular colleagues from all around the globe whose diversity is demonstrated in so many ways. We are excited to have them join us!

In summary, 2022 has been an exciting year already for WJS, and we are looking forward to continuing to work hard for the ISS/SIC and its members, as well as for our authors and their science, and our readers. On behalf of our incredibly hard-working editorial board, associate editors, managing editor Laura Shearer, and our publisher, Sean Beppler, thank you for the privilege of serving!

Ann Sosa Editor in Chief WJS

Julie

Instructors and participants at the Writers’ Workshop

Dr George Barreto.

Dr Claire Karekezi.

Dear Reader

It was a great pleasure for us to see so many participants in person at ISW 2022 in Vienna supporting the congress as well as ISS/SIC despite a short-term arrangement – thanks for your participation which we hope was to a mutual benefit.

We have to say farewell to Ms. Denise Eg gler-Braun who has left our administration team end of November to seek n ew challenges. We are thankful for her

ISS/SIC Administrative Office team Chris, Laurie, Mike, Denise.

great support during the past years and wish her all the best for her future endeavors!

At the same time, we like to welcome Ms. Anna Pollastro as a new team member. Anna will be mainly in charge of membership issues but also supporting the ISW organization.

Our administration staff is looking forward to working with the newly composed leadership – congratulation to the newly

We hope that you can enjoy a peaceful and healthy end of the year season, our thoughts are with the ones in less fortunate conditions - we hope on speedy amelioration of the situation they suffer.

With our best wishes. Administrative Office team

Visit us on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Message from ISW 2022 National President

718 abstracts were initially received, 514 accepted, 395 included in the scientific program; at the end, 700 presentations (invited talks/lectures, free papers, videos, posters) took place in 103 sessions and six halls (parallel); these are the sober figures.

It has been like a fairy tale, …“Once upon a time”… when I got the mandate to organize the International Surgical Week in August 2022 in Vienna, Austria. And indeed, the fairy tale became true: it was possible to conduct the 49th World Congress of the International Society of Surgery/Société Internationale de Chirurgie (ISS/SIC) the International Surgical Week ISW2022, www.isw2022.org, in Vienna, Austria. Almost 900 members, friends and colleagues joined us at ISW2022 at the famous Hofburg, the former imperial palace of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy.

Covid, the war in Eastern Europe, and flight chaos in Europe, but primarily the short preparation time of nine months, November 2021 to August 2022, were challenging for the organizers.

The fact is that the attempt resulted in a successful meeting, the international guests were enthusiastic about the setting: Vienna as “the most beautiful city” and with “the highest quality of life”, the Hofburg as the congress venue, “imperial weather” and much more; and the wellknown excellent scientific level of ISW contributed its share.

The Integrated, Associated and Participating Societies at ISW2022 set the focus for

sessions, lectures and posters.

IAES International Association of Endocrine Surgeons

IATSIC International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care

IASMEN International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition

BSI Breast Surgery International

ISDS International Society for Digestive Surgery

ASAP Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence

CSAMM College of Surgeons Academy of Medicine in Malaysia

elected Council members of ISS/SIC and of the Integrates Societies!

Anna Pollastro.

Dear members of ISS/SIC,

Albert Tuchmann, ISW 2022 National Congress President

FELAC Federación Latinoamericana de Cirugía

IASSS International Association of Student Surgical Societies

RCSEng Royal College of Surgeons of England

AAST The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma AWS Association of Women Surgeons APIMSF The Ambroise Paré International Military Surgery Forum ISBI International Society for Burn Injuries ISS-US Chapter United States Chapter of the International Society of Surgery

Thank You all for Your contribution!

The congress did not only work, but it also danced. Most international guests appreciated the official congress evening, the “Vienna Night” at Hübner Kursalon, and the events in other renowned locations such as the City Hall of Vienna, cafés, restaurants, wine taverns, etc.

Corresponding political support from

amongst others, the Mayor of Vienna, the Councillor of Health Issues of Vienna), media (Newspapers, Radio, TV) contributed to the success of ISW 2022 in Vienna.

Kind regards, best wishes

ISS/SIC Awardees at ISW 2022

The ISS/SIC Council congratulates the awardees of various Prizes conveyed at ISW 2022 in Vienna.

ISS/SIC Honorary Fellowship was bestowed to Frank Branicki, UAE, Orlo H. Clark, USA and Patricia J. Numann, USA for their tireless efforts towards the cause of ISS/SIC. Unfortunately, Dr. Clark could not personally attend the ISW 2022 meeting.

The Prize of the ISS/SIC « Société Internationale de Chirurgie » h as been awarded to Olle Ljungqvist, Sweden for his contribution to surgical science.

The Robert Danis Prize for most important and personal work in connection w ith surgical treatment of fractures was given to John Holcomb, USA and Martin Schreiber, USA (ex aequo).

the ISS/SIC Prize to Olle Ljungqvist.

Stay connected! …and see You at the next ISS/SIC and ISW

Albert Tuchmann National Congress President ISW 2022

Enjoying Vienna Night at Hübner Kursalon.

Awarding

Awarding ISS/SIC Honorary Fellowship to Frank Branicki and Patricia J. Numann.

Robert Danis Prize Awardees, John Holcomb and Martin Schreiber.

Also, prizes for the best ISS/SIC Free Paper and Poster presentations were awarded at ISW 2022 – our congratulation to the awardees for their achievement!

I SS/SIC Lloyd M. Nyhus Prize

Presenting Author: René H. Fortelny, Austria EFFECTS OF THE SHORT STITCH TECHNIQUE FOR MIDLINE ABDOMINAL CLOSURE ON INCISIONAL HERNIA: RESULTS FROM THE R ANDOMISED-CONTROLLED ESTOIH TRIAL

ISS/SIC Poster Prize

Georgia Therese Cox, Australia OVEREMPLOYED AND UNDERAPPRECIATED; MRCP USE IN AN ACUTE SURGICAL UNIT RARELY CHANGES MANAGEMENT, DELAYS DISCHARGE AND COMPOUNDS HOSPITAL COSTS

Report IAES

Jan Zedenius, President IAES

Opening statement from the President

Dear friends and colleagues from all over the world,

It was indeed a very special moment to receive the Presidential Medallion from Professor Akira Miyauchi during the IAES Gala dinner in the Vienna City Hall. The names engraved on the medallion necklace make me extremely humble, and very, very honored. I will do my best to fulfil the expectations which follow this extraordinary assignment.

Last time we met in Vienna was the year before the new Millennium, and the world looked very different then, full of hope

and expectations for better times. If we want to come close to reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals the United Nations have set for 2030, we have enormous challenges in front of us. To achieve some of these goals - such as decreasing socioeconomic inequalities between countries and continents, provide better availability to healthcare (and surgery!) to all, not to mention tackling the health threat from climate change - we must all come together, work across borders, and increase exchange of science, knowledge, innovation and development. Nothing else can solve the problems we face, but instead, we are now experiencing increasing polarization within and between countries – indeed, we seem to risk developing a new cold war!

For these reasons, a manifestation such as the Vienna meeting is of great importance. IAES members from all over the world meet to share exactly the above-mentioned prerequisites for creating an optimistic future: science and knowledge, respecting and appreciating

the differences we have between our societies and countries. This form of exchange across borders is exactly what the world needs much more of at times like these.

We, the new IAES Council Officers, are obliged to all of you who have chosen us to represent you, and we will do everything we can to provide all our members the possibilities for further exchange of science and knowledge and make our association’s future bright and positive. Obviously, we cannot solve all 17 UN goals for 2030, but we can do our best in providing a continually better situation for our patients; the IAES is without doubt the best arena to achieve just this.

Best wishes, and looking forward to seeing you all in Kuala Lumpur 2024.

Jan Zedenius President IAES

IAES session at ISW 2022

Stan Sidhu, Secretary-Treasurer IAES

over the lifetime of his work.

International Association of Endocrine Surgeons – In-person Meeting Vienna, Austria August 14 – August 18, 2022

It was with great pleasure that the leaders of international endocrine surgery convened in Vienna on the 14th of August for the first in-person meeting in three years following interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting had been organized in record time by the previous secretary Dr Janice Pasieka in conjunction with the local arrangements organizer Professor Bruno Niederle from Austria, who had been the previous local arrangements host in 1999. Professor Niederle had chosen the Fleming’s Selection Hotel Wien-City, Vienna to be the IAES conference hotel.

Our meeting began with the welcome reception at the Fleming’s Selection Hotel, Wien-City. The diverse and interesting scientific program that had been organized took place over the following three days, August 15, 16 and 17, at the ISS/SIC convention centre.

As always, the core of the meeting consisted of the splendid oral and poster abstracts from members selected from around the world. Special thanks goes to Tracy Wang (USA), who headed the abstract selection committee, and she was ably assisted by many of her colleagues from around the world.

One of the two scientific highlights of the meeting was as always, the IAES Peter Heimann lecture. This year, it was given by Professor Shunichi Yamashita from Japan on thyroid cancer and nuclear accidents. This was well-received along with the Presidential address from Professor Akira Miyauchi, Kobe, Japan, outlining the chronology of thyroid cancer and how he has provided an alternative to the management of micropapillary thyroid cancer

Further, there were other interesting sessions throughout the three-day IAES conference of note. As usual, a thought-provoking interesting cases session was moderated by Janice Pasieka. Barbra Miller (USA) and Olov Norlén (Sweden) coordinated a well-attended breakfast session, focusing on endocrine surgical videos from colleagues around the world.

On Tuesday night, the IAES Gala banquet was held at the Vienna City Hall. The City Hall is one of the most splendid amongst the numerous monumental buildings along Vienna’s Ringstraße. Designed by Friedrich Schmidt (1825-1891), it was built between 1872 and 1883.

At City Hall we were welcomed by Dr Michael Binder, Head of the Vienna Healthcare Group and surgical oncologist Prof Thomas Bachleitner-Hofmann entertained us with exquisite performances on the piano during the evening.

The final day of the conference was rounded up by panel sessions on scientific misconduct and the care of surgical patients, basic science in endocrine surgery where early career researchers from around the globe presented their very interesting work and concluded with a discussion on novel techniques in endocrine surgery, including thyroid nodule ablative

techniques and fluorescence-based parathyroid detection and perfusion techniques.

On Thursday, many members took the opportunity to explore Vienna and surrounding countryside, taking in the many sights, art galleries, museums and wineries that the city had to offer.

Despite the hurried organization and uncertainty regarding the success of an in-person meeting, it was felt that the meeting was extremely well-attended by Endocrine surgical leaders and the next generation of leaders from the US, Australia, Europe and Asia. It was felt that the international endocrine surgical community is indeed in a strong position.

This year also marked the end of service for many councilors from the IAES council and executives. Through a difficult COVID-19 affected period, we are indebted to the leadership provided by President Akira Miyauchi and Secretary-Treasurer Janice Pasieka. A number of our long-serving councilors have concluded their terms and need to be congratulated on their contribution to the IAES council over the last 7 years. Special mentions go to Sally Carty (USA), Tsueno Imai (Japan), Jean-Louis Kraimps (France), Stanley Sidhu (Australia), Euy Young Soh (South Korea), Goran Wallin (Sweden), Martha A. Zeiger (USA) and Fausto Palazzo (UK).

Breaktime - well used for discussion and networking at ISW 2022.

The council has served admirably for the last 7 years and assisted the President and Secretary-Treasurer in undertaking their duties running the organization. They should be congratulated for the efforts.

We also formally thank Rob Parkyn who has served for many years as the Interest Chair and handed over duties to Inne Borel-Rinkes (Netherlands) to continue the great program that he has created.

Special thanks also goes to Gerard Doherty, who has been a longstanding member of the council and executive since 2003. He also served as our President 2017-2019. He ends his very long association with IAES at this meeting. Furthermore, we have benefited from the substantial contribution of Geoffrey Thompson, who has served as Secretary-Treasurer and Council coordinator since 2009. He also ends his longstanding association with the IAES executive. We thank both gentlemen for their long and valued service.

We thank Tammy Skilnick-Mierau for her outstanding service to the organization in

assisting Janice Pasieka in running the organization over the last 7 years. Her dedication and service to the organization has been immense.

This meeting also marks a welcome to five new councilors: Jonathan Serpell (Australia), Peter Stalberg (Sweden), Tracy Wang (USA), Dana Hartl (France) and Iwao Sugitani (Japan). We look forward to their insights and contributions.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the new executive assumed their positions with Jan Zedenius becoming the President, Janice Pasieka becoming the President-elect, Fausto Palazzo becoming the Council coordinator and Stanley Sidhu becoming Secretary-Treasurer. The new executives and council will work tirelessly in the best interests of the IAES to keep the association strong, diverse and scientifically engaged.

We look forward to our next in-person meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2024.

Stan Sidhu, Secretary-Treasurer IAES

Our congratulations go to the IAES Free Paper and Poster Prize Winners

Charles Proye Free Paper Award

Presenter: Karishma Jassal, Australia

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS OF MALIGNANT THYROID NODULES BASED ON SONOGRAPHIC FEATURES AND CYTOLOGY

Selwyn Taylor Free Paper Award

Presenter: Vishvak Chanthar, India

CARDIAC CHANGES IN PHEOCHROMOCYTOMA/PARAGANGLIOMA PATIENTS AND THEIR REVERSAL AFTER CU R ATIVE SURGERY: RESULTS OF P HEOCARD PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY

John Farndon Poster Award

Presenter: Andrea Gillis, USA

REDUCING DISPARITIES IN THE TREATMENT OF HYPERPARATHYROIDISM

Michael Brauckhoff Poster Award

Presenter: Theresa Wang, USA

CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND OUTCOMES OF ADRENAL HEMORRHAGE

Report IATSIC

Scott D’Amours, President IATSIC

• I t was wonderful to get back together again in person and enjoy the scientific sessions of IATSIC and those in combination with some of the other integrated societies. The speakers delivered some memorable talks and generated great discussion. All of these were well-received as were the free paper and poster presentations.

Elmin Steyn. Many aspects regarding the future of trauma care were touched on, including some very insightful considerations including the impacts of global climate changes and the flow-on effects these changes have on population movements/migration as well as food and water availability.

Report on the activities of IATSIC May 2022 – October 2022

A warm ‘hello’ to our IATSIC members around the globe! It has been a busy few months with one of the highlights being International Surgical Week recently held in Vienna at the majestic Hofburg.

49th ISW 2022 (Vienna 15-18 August 2022)

• T he Robert Danis prize was awarded to two people this year - Prof John Holcomb of Texas, USA and Prof Martin Schreiber of Oregon, USA

• We were honoured this year to have the Donald D Trunkey Lecture titled “The paradigm of education in the 21st Century: are we training to fail?” given by Professor Kenneth D Boffard of South Africa.

• T he IATSIC Presidential address was delivered by IATSIC President Professor

• P roposed amendments to the Constitution and IATSIC Business Rules were supported unanimously at the IATSIC Business Meeting. These modest changes will allow the Executive Committee to expand its activities by bringing a greater number of IATSIC members into its structure to both build depth and capacity for the growing number of projects in which we are involved.

• M any abstracts for both podium and

poster presentations were received. The quality was high and the competition strong but the Best Free Paper prize was awarded to Adam Gyedu, Ghana (ASSESSING ACHIEVEMENT OF KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS DURING INITIAL ASSESSMENT AND CARE OF INJURED PATIENTS AT GHANAIAN NON-TERTIARY HOSPITALS) and the Best Poster prize was awarded to Muhamad Izwan Ismail, Malaysia (MANAGING BLUNT SOLID ORGAN INJURIES IN A MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRY: ARE WE UP TO THE STANDARD?)

• A big thank you is due to the ISW IATSIC Program led by Professor Tina Gaarder for the high-quality Congress Program that was delivered for ISW 2022. The venue, city and program changes required a great deal of flexibility and work from the IATSIC team, and we are grateful for the high-quality results. Not only was the Hofburg a wonderful and historic venue to host such a Congress, the IATSIC Dinner was held at the beautiful Rathauskeller and was filled. We were delighted to be involved from both ASAP and the ISS/SIC student group IASSS. These future leaders of surgery and trauma care from IASSS also joined us for the IATSIC Dinner as well as some of the academic sessions delivered at ISW.

DSTC and DATC training course activities

• T hese courses continue to grow and thrive despite the limited numbers during COVID. What we are seeing now seems to be a degree of ‘pent-up’ demand as well as new course growth and new sites coming online. The ‘training

in teams’ concept of parallel and overlapping courses for both surgeons and anaesthetists continues to deliver strong reviews.

• Prior to ISW in Vienna, an IATSIC workshop and Executive Committee meeting were held - and much of the workshop was spent discussing planned future directions for development of the DSTC and DATC courses. The expanded structure of the amendments accepted by the Membership will continue to allow IATSIC to build the quality of the DSTC and DATC Courses with better succession planning and consistent leadership.

Webinars

• T he IATSIC executive continue to be very happy with the strong showing of webinars delivered throughout 2021and 2022. Many of these have been delivered in conjunction with a variety of surgical and trauma societies around the world and have really demonstrated the collaborative spirit of the IATSIC membership.

• We are pleased to announce that these webinars will continue with both established and new Societies and partners around the world over the next year.

• S tay up to date with planned webinars through the IATSIC website at: https:// www.iatsic.org/Webinars/

Global commitments

WHO Collaboration

• This IATSIC-WHO collaboration towards a new advanced operative trauma management course has reached another milestone. IATSIC continues to provide the expertise of its members towards the content development of this impor-

tant educational endeavour.

• So far, the project has almost completed submission of the educational content by IATSIC, and the next phase of development involves the WHO Academy designers.

• We are excited to see this new course evolve toward delivery of an educational program that is very much ‘in demand’. We are hoping for the first pilot course to take place in 2023.

50th World Congress, ISW 2024 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) conference preparation:

• W ith the success of the 49th World Congress, ISW 2022 held in Vienna still strong in our memories - it is hard to imagine that work has already commenced for the next Congress.

• I ndeed, we are delighted to be heading to KL in 2024! As most of you know, KL was meant to be the venue for ISW 2021 until the pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions forced a delay and change to the planned Congress. We are thrilled to be working with our Malaysian colleagues again in planning the 50th World Congress of ISS/SIC, ISW 2024. Please make sure your calendars have saved the dates of August 25-29, 2024, for this next Congress. It is surely one not to be missed!

Best wishes from the IATSIC executive committee.

Scott D’Amours, President

David Zonies, President Elect

Elmin Steyn, Past President

Tim Hardcastle, Secretary/Treasurer

Tina Gaarder, Congress Program Chair

Moderators enjoying the IATSIC session.

IASMEN

Anders Thorell, President IASMEN 2019-2022

Facebook and Twitter and these channels have been activated by posting various topics at least biweekly.

Dear IASMEN members

Although not very long time has passed since the last ISS/SIC Newsletter was published in May 2022, the situation in many, not to say most parts of the world is changing rapidly. A couple of months ago, many of us considered the Covid Pandemic to be something belonging to the past, but today the situation in this respect seems more uncertain than ever. Also, the catastrophic situation in Ukraine and other parts of the world with armed conflicts and millions of people suffering tremendously, unfortunately contributes to the overall global situation.

The meeting in Kuala Lumpur last year was, as all are aware, abandoned and was in accord with recent events replaced as an interim solution by a Virtual meeting (VSW). As reported in t he last Newsletter, the meeting was a success which is a great relief in itself. We are very pleased with the successful re-entry of International Surgical W eek (ISW) onto the World Surgical Stage, and the meeting was a great success. For IASMEN, we believe that we created a program that attracted not only members of the society, but also surgeons with an interest in clinical care of patients with nutritional and m etabolic disorders in general as well in all uncomplicated patients undergoing surgical treatment within an ERAS protocol. An interesting aspect of ERAS is the potential in “prehabilitation” programs to optimize patients before surgery in order to improve outcome postoperatively. Prehabilitation was the topic of one of the “State of the art” (SOTA) - lectures held on Monday, August 15. The other SOTA covered what is known regarding the potential of adherence to ERAS protocols to i mprove long-time survival after cancer surgery.

Although things might change rapidly, Kuala Lumpur is planned to be the next site for the ISS/SIC meeting in 2024.

Our Secretary General, Joji Kotani has continued to actively approach several of the PEN-societies in Asia in order to increase our number of members and improve future collaboration. As one of the measures, Joji Kotani and IASMEN Scientific Chair, Ho-Seong Han have, in collaboration established the Asian Society of Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition (ASSMN) involving Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, and India. Although no formal agreements have been reached as yet, there is good hope that we in the future will be able to offer block membership in IASMEN for members of the various Asian PEN-societies, which should have a major potential to improve our collaborative activities. As things are evolving, we aim at offer the same for colleagues in other parts of the world, such as Europe and the US as a second step.

Another important measure to maintain and increase interest in IASMEN activities is through Social Media activities (SNS). These have progressed through efforts made by IASMEN “SNS-responsible“ Naomi Nakayama. IASMEN SNS includes

Updated information about surgical nutrition- and metabolism-related congresses and recently published scientific papers have also been shared continuously. We have featured ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) programs by which surgical nutrition impacts the outcome of surgical patients. As mentioned above, ASSMN is a new society co-founded by surgical nutrition societies in Asia and the first congress was held online this year in Korea. IASMEN has initiated collaboration with ASSMN and continue to share their information on its SNS. It should also have the potential to contribute to the acquisition of new members from Asia.

We believe that our SNS is an effective tool to disseminate our activities and meets t he trend of the time. We encourage all IASMEN members to join our SNS by actively sharing your latest news. Please do not hesitate to contact our secretary SNS, Naomi Nakayama by email na-nakayama@hyo-med.ac.jp.

In summary, we feel confident that there is room for good hope for the future for ISS/ SIC members as well as all others with interest in improving the care of patients with surgical curable diseases. It is therefore my great pleasure to welcome you to our next meeting in Kuala Lumpur, and I am looking forward to seeing you then. I wish our new President, Steven Wolf, every success.

Anders Thorell President IASMEN

2019-2022

IASMEN José Patiño Lecturer 2022, David Herndon

Report BSI

A. Ung, President BSI

W.W. Chan, Honorary Secretary BSI

The World’s Congress of Surgery - International Surgical Week 2022 took place in a city that offers a blend of imperial traditions, music, and endearing charm - Vienna. Breast Surgery International was glad to be part of it and is committed to inspire with the old and the new alike. It was a wonderful week and so heartwarming to catch up with friends and colleagues from all over the World at HOFBURG Vienna on 14-18 August 2022.

BREAST SURGERY

INTERNATIONAL at INTERNATIONAL SURGICAL WEEK, Sunday 14th– Thursday 18th August 2022

The BSI program chair Dr Jean Francois Boileau, together with Professor Michael Gnant from Vienna, successfully organized a diverse and comprehensive program featuring experts from all around the world. T he program kicked off on Sunday 14 August 2022 with a preconference workshop: Advanced Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery Course. Participants submitted cases for the Interactive Sessions wh ich were highly educational. The main

sessions covered updates in management of the axilla, oncoplastic breast surgery, neoadjuvant therapy, and management of high-risk patients. The greatly anticipated and very informative “BSI debate” is always a highlight of the BSI meeting, the topic included oncoplastic breast surgery and management of the axilla. New in 2022, the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) and Breast Surgery International (BSI) held joint sessions that covered important topics in global health and gender issues related to breast cancer care.

BS I received outstanding research abstracts for oral or poster presentations. BSI paper prize, poster prize presentations and travel scholars were selected by a panel of eight independent reviewers. Travel Scholars presented interesting and difficult cases for discussions at the “Stump the Expert” session. Mei-Sze Teh (Malaysia)

and Cassandra P.T. Mbanje (South Africa) won the free paper prize. Pauliina Homsy (Finland) and Ashutosh Mishra (India) won the poster prize. The caliber of these young surgical researchers demonstrated the benefit they will bring to their local communities.

One of the highlights of our meeting was the Presidential address, delivered by our much loved and departing president – Prof Gaurav Agarwal. His presidency steered BSI through a difficult period and much adulation must be given to his steadfast leadership.

This year we honor our Umberto Veronesi Lecturer 2022, Professor Michael Gnant. Prof Gnant is Full Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he also serves as President of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study

Owen

Sharon

Council Meeting with Prof A Tuchmann and Prof M Gnant, 30 Jul 2022.

BSI Council Members with Prize Winners and Travel Scholars.

Group. He is co-chairing the renowned St Gallen Consensus Panel for Early Breast Cancer since 2015.

Prof Gnant is the author of more than 500 original peer-reviewed papers with an impact factor of 4,500 and an h-index of 78, and he has presented over 1,000 lectures at national and international meetings. Both in 2017 and 2021, he was among the most highly cited scientists worldwide. His address indeed highlighted his stellar international career and the enormous contribution he has made to improving breast cancer care through research and innovation.

The new team of officers and council members were inaugurated during the World Congress of Surgery. We welcome our new BSI President Owen A. Ung, the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Institute (Australia). Ines Buccimazza (South Africa) is our Pres -

ident elect, Sharon Chan (Hong Kong) remains as honorary Secretary and Michael Douek was appointed as Treasurer of the Society. Farid Meybodi (Australia), assisted by Nur Aishah Mohd Taib (Malaysia) is the 2024 BSI program coordinator for the next World Congress of Surgery/ Inter national Surgical Week. The Society thanks Jean Francois Boileau (Canada), Bahadir Gullouglu (Turkey) and Shigeru Imoto (Japan) who step down from council. We welcomed Jacqueline Jeruss (USA), Ipshita Prakash (Canada), Minna Susanna Cecillia Kauhanen (Finland), Kavltha Daester (Switzerland), Tadahiko Shien (Japan) and Pooja Ramakant (India). We also need thank ex-officio councilors: Kerstin Sandelin (Sweden), Sarkis Meterissian (Canada), Omar Z. Youssef (Egypt), M ikael Hartman (Singapore) and S.V.S. Deo (India) for their continued, and unwavering dedication and service to the BSI. We would like to thank our local organizer Dr Stephanie Kacerovsky-Strobl who organized an extraordinary BSI Dinner & Tour of Narrenturm, which was a highlight of the meeting. We trust all enjoyed a highly educative and convivial meeting, and a warm and friendly social experience at Vienna!

breast lesions. Following the discussions and Q&A session, BSI honorary treasurer Dr. SVS Deo, took over the microphone and moderated the case discussion panel with the distinguished panelists Dr. Sharon W.W. Chanfrom Hong Kong SAR, D r. Elisabeth Elder from Australia, Dr. Shigeru Imoto from Japan, Dr. Nur Aishah Mohd Taib from Malaysia and Dr. Atilla Omeroglu from Canada. In the panel, diagnosis and management of patients with difficult atypical lesions were discussed thoroughly. Questions and comments from the audience were also answered at the end of the web-utorial.

Hong Kong Society of Breast ­Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting 2 5 Sept 2022

BREAST

SURGERY INTERNATIONAL WEB-UTORIAL 7 May 2022 BSI organized its 3rd consecutive web-utorial on “High-risk breast lesions” on 7 May 2022 with over 200 participants from all over the world. The 2-hour event was in 2 sessions. In the (first session in which BSI past-presidents Dr. Kerstin Sandelin and Dr. Cheng-Har Yip were the chairs, the eminent faculty including D r. Ines Buccimazza from South Africa, r. Alexander Mundinger from Germany and Dr. Mikael Hartman from Singapore gave lectures on various aspects of high-risk

Breast Surgery International continues to support the Annual Scientific Meeting of Hong Kong Society of Breast Surgeons. A Keynote lecture was delivered by world renowned surgeon and international speaker, Mr Douglas Macmillan from Nottingham Breast Institute. It was wonderful to learn from his vast experience in oncoplastic breast surgery. Professor Owen Ung and Professor Mikael Hartman joined the case discussions as distinguished panelists. Registration was free of charge for BSI members.

FUTURE BSI EVENTS

Breast Surgery International has been invited to provide expertise for Greater Petaling City-wide Capacity Strengthening of Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Management in Breast Cancer (BC MDT Project) in Malaysia City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) engaged with Breast Surgery International during their Council Meeting on Saturday, 30 July 2022. C/Can was launched at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos as

Past President Prof Gaurav Agarwal presents Veronesi Lecturer Prof Michael Gnant.

BSI Dinner and Tour of Narrenturm.

an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and became a s tandalone Swiss foundation in 2019. In 2019, Greater Petaling City Cancer Challenge (GP C/CAN) was launched but due the pandemic it was not possible to continue the implementation of the program. N evertheless in 2021 C/Can proposed the project “Greater Petaling BC MDT” for a grant offered by the Islamic Development Bank to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The project was selected, and the grant allocated. Although the overall C/Can program was delayed due to the pandemic, the project to strength

multidisciplinary care capacity-building activity keep moving and it is planned an ASCO training program “Multidisciplinary C ancer Management Course” on 17 to 19 September 2022 in Greater Petaling. Six interhospital MDTs focusing on targeted education to improve quality care will b e conducted in 2022-2023. This training program targets to close the quality c are gaps in the city and beyond in Malaysia. Breast Surgery International, an o rganization that boasts leading breast surgery experts from six continents, was invited to partner to execute the six interhospital MDTs in Greater Petaling for

2022-2023. As partner, BSI will provide breast surgery experts to be external reviewers of the “Breast Cancer MDT Best Practices” document drafted by the Greater Petaling Team to guide hospitals in implementing MDTs. BSI also will designate experts to act as session moderators and presenter of didactic part of the TeleECHO Programme organized by the local team in Greater Petaling. C/Can and BSI will continue to explore common interest and opportunities for collaboration at the global level between them that eventually would be included in a MoU signed between the two organizations.

EXCELLENCE IN ONCOLOGY CARE - EIOC

EIOC is one of the largest and most sought-after Oncology Congress in the Middle East and this year held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Festival City, Dubai, UAE, October 21-23, 2022, there is featured 12 + multi-specialties in Oncology. Misbah Ahmed on behalf of EIOC 2022 welcomed BSI members with unlimited complimentary passes to the virtual component of the meeting.

iBREASTBOOK WEBINAR

iBreastBook have been running webinars for over two years, a wonderful educative resource particularly during the Covid period. Every singly webinar till now had more than one thousand registrations and most webinars have more than 400-500 people joining from across the world. Yazan Masannat, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is convening webinar number 37, proposed as a joint one with BSI, in Late January. Webinars run on Saturday 17:00 UK Time for 1.5-2 hours. Usually, three talks are followed by a panel discussion and this theme will likely be ‘High Risk Lesions’.

We will keep you informed and watch the websites and notifications that will provide zoom links and invitations. Attendees should qualify CPD Points and receive certificates for participation.

Owen A. Ung, President BSI

Sharon W.W. Chan, Honorary Secretary BSI

BSI Web-utorial 7 May 2022.

Members of the Association of Women Surgeons enjoyed ISW 2022.

Alessandro Fichera, past President ISDS

Committee of Virtual Surgical Week VSW 2021.

It has been a long and complicated threeyear journey during the Covid pandemic both for the ISS/ISDS and for me personally and professionally. I vividly remember taking over the society presidency from Professor Hiroyuki Konno in Kraków in August 2019. A few months later the Covid pandemic started, and we found ourselves having to face the challenge to keep our Society scientifically relevant, professionally solid and financially healthy. It became obvious that we had to cancel the in person meeting originally scheduled for August 2022 in Kuala Lumpur. Clearly it was not the time to travel and to have in person meetings. The ISS/SIC and ISDS were facing potential financial losses and reduction in membership. The executive council of ISS/SIC, guided by the prudent and astute leadership of Dr. John Hunter met several times to outline a plan to navigate those difficult times. Once the decision of postponing the meeting in Kuala Lumpur was made, in less than six months we put together a Virtual Surgical Week (VSW) to take place in 2021 involving all the affiliated and associated societies.

This was the first time that the International Surgical Week was held virtually and thanks to the office staff hard-work and dedication it went without a glitch. T he program was inclusive, diverse,

comprehensive and overall, well attended. ISDS was very involved and in fact we lead many of the component of the VSW. Subsequently to maintain the interest and attention of the membership ISDS planned and run monthly webinars covering the entire spectrum of the gastrointestinal tract pathology that lasted an entire year.

Those webinars were also very well attended and are now available free of charge to the membership on the website. Unfortunately, the past three years were not all positive. The ISDS lost one of the Executive Council members. Dr. Toru Kono on November 9, 2021, lost his battle with hepatobiliary cancer. Dr. Kono was heavily involved with the society and joined the Executive Council in 2019. Dr. Kono was known to the international scientific community for his revolutionary anastomotic technique for Crohn’s Disease, the Kono-S anastomosis. He was a dear friend, and he will be missed.

And now we are in Vienna for the 2022 International Surgical Week that thanks to the vision, determination and leadership of Dr. Albert Tuchman was moved to Vienna the capital city of Austria.

Vienna has been a political, economic and historical major center in Europe for centuries. A city full of history and charm.

ISDS monthly webinars 2021-2022 “Saturday at the Movies”.

ISDS put together a very comprehensive and thought-provoking program in line with the tradition of our society. At the end of this three-year journey, we can say with certainty, that the ISDS is healthy, relevant, and will be playing a major role in teaching, education and networking around the globe from medical students to senior surgeons in practice involving every surgical specialty that manages gastrointestinal track pathology for years to come.

Finally, I have been honored to serve the society for three years. It has been one of the highlights of my professional career and I am extremely proud to pass the rein

Report ASAP

of our prestigious society to the capable hands of Mr. Jamie Murphy who will take it to the next level with his British flare and scientific excellence. My best regards to all.

Sincerely Alessandro Fichera Past President ISDS

Our congratulation also goes to the ISDS Free Paper Prize Winners at ISW 2022

ISDS Grassi Prize

Presenter: Maria Andrea Willis, Germany SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND METAANALYSIS ON PREOPERATIVE COMBINED MECHANICAL AND ORAL ANTIBIOTIC BOWEL PREPARATION FOR PREVENTING COMPLICATIONS IN ELECTIVE COLORECTAL SURGERY

ISDS Kitajima Prize

Presenter: Alexander Semaan, Germany INTEGRATED MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF INTRADUCTAL PAPILLARY MUCINOUS NEOPLASMS

Report IASSS

2022. Congratulation to the winner for an outstanding presentation!

ASAP Free Paper Prize

Presenter: Himanshu Salil Iyer, India DISTRESS FINANCING AND IMPO VERISHING EXPENDITURES DUE TO SURGICAL CARE IN INDIA: RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF NATIONALLY-REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY (20172018)

Russell L. Gruen Acting President ASAP

The International Association of Student Surgical Societies (IASSS) participated in the International Surgical Week (ISW) con-

ference in August in Vienna, Austria. We were very excited to meet all the worlds’ top surgeons and learn about all the newest innovations in surgery.

We had a delegation of 13 future surgeons attend the conference, namely:

• Sulé Burger, South Africa, University of Witwatersrand

• S hadé Breedt, South Africa, Stellenbosch University

• Jess Davies, South Africa, Stellenbosch University

• R euben Masia, South Africa, Stellenbosch University

• Udit Choubey, India, Shyam Shah Medical College, Rewa

• Tugba Ugur, Italy, University of Turin

• L aura Cabrera, Colombia, Universidad El Bosque

• S tavroula Papaeleftheriou, Greece,

University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova

• S avannah Verhage, South Africa, University of Cape Town

• S angEun Lee, South Africa, Stellenbosch University

• Saloni Mitra, India, Bogomolets National Medical University

• J ill Kar, India, New Vision University School of Medicine

• James Harelimana, Rwanda, University of Rwanda

Russell L. Gruen, Acting President ASAP

The committee of ASAP has awarded the best Free Paper presentation at ISW

Shadé Breedt, President IASSS

Jessica Davies, Administration O fficer IASSS

Jamie Murphy, President ISDS

and theirs. We would like to extend a massive thanks to the ISS/SIC for allowing us the opportunity to attend the conference and learn and grow from the experience. We hope to implement new projects and initiatives in collaboration with the ISS/SIC affiliated societies so as to continue the mission to expand the field of surgery amongst medical students and junior doctors.

In addition to the ISW this year, our membership base has continued to increase, and we have grown from 1’307 members in March 2022 to 1’775 in July 2022. We have 54 registered societies from around the world with this list continuously expanding.

In the last year, since July 2021, we have had an increase in membership of 43%. At the end of July 2021, our membership base sat at 760 members. This is in comparison to our current membership base of 1’775 members with 1’015 new members having joined our society in the last year. The country with the largest number of members is India with 43,9%. Italy, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and Pakistan complete the top 6 countries with the highest membership base.

Our social media accounts have blossomed since the commencement of ISW advertisements. We have reposted ISS/ SIC news, uploaded videos of our future surgeons and continued to engage with our members across various platforms including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Now that ISW is over, we are returning to our standard activities and initiatives and exploring an Essay Competition that aims to cultivate skills needed for good academic writing. We endeavor to host another talk before the end of this year as well. We would like to focus our attention on junior doctors and pre-specialists, in order to make our society more applicable to them. They currently make up a smaller portion of our overall membership base.

Shadé Breedt President IASSS

The conference was a huge success and the experience our delegates had was life changing. We had the opportunity to

2022

network with the most influential doctors in the field of surgery and discuss collaborative opportunities between our society

Jessica Davies Administration Officer IASSS

Report G4 Alliance

The G4 Alliance International Standards and Guidelines (ISG) working group had a hugely successful launch of the 11 Best Practice Recommendations (BPRs) Implementation Roadmap at International S urgical Week in Vienna in August 2022! We were very fortunate to have immense support from a lineage of presidents of the

ISS/SIC, including Drs Andrew Hill, John Hunter, and Cheng-Har Yip. This joint-hosted event by the G4 Alliance and ISS/SIC w alked through our 4-year journey from research to advocacy and policy changes, and now to implementation. A summary of the launch agenda included the following topics: Dr James Jin presented the Suva

Guidelines, Dr Lye-Yeng Wong presented the Delphi study on prioritization and distribution of surgical services, Dr Ruben Ayala presented the role of the G4 Alliance in advocacy, Dr Jaymie Henry presented the GRADE methodology behind creating the 11 Best BPRs, and Dr Neil Wetzig presented the work of creating an international preoperative database in LMICs.

The G4 Alliance is now formally partnered with the Dakar Declaration, and along with the participating 32 African countries, are committed to the targets set for the scale up of quality and safe surgery by 2030.

Our next steps involve finishing the baseline assessment surveys in district hospitals throughout Africa, continuing implementation of the 11 BPRs through pilot projects already started in Malaysia, South Africa, Fiji, Laos and Nigeria, and further advocacy at the WHO level.

Please contact Lye-Yeng Wong, director of operations of the ISG working group at wong.lyeyeng@gmail.com for more information or to be involved in ongoing implementation pilot projects.

At the G4 Session at ISW 2022.

Obituary:

H. Clark (MD, Professor Emeritus,UCSF) August 7, 1941 – October 11, 2022, ISS/SIC Honorary Fellow 2022

in 1973. He was Chief of Surgery at Mt Zion Medical Center and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery. In addition to his role with IAES he has been President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the American Thyroid Association and the Pacific Coast Surgical Association. He has authored over 450 peer reviewed articles, sixteen books and numerous book chapters. He was also the recipient of the prestigious AAES Oliver Cope Meritorious Achievement Award.

Orlo Clark MD was a giant both physically and in the kindred spirit way for endocrine surgeons worldwide. He spent his entire career, from Intern through to Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. Orlo was responsible for establishing endocrine surgery at an international level, a commitment which continued throughout his career. In 1978 Peter Heimann, Professor of Surgery in Bergen, Norway, wrote to his friends to say he was dying of gastric cancer and stated his fervent wish that an international endocrine group of surgeons be formed. The first meeting of that group at the SIC Congress in San Francisco included Orlo Clark who was elected as Secretary-Treasurer, Selwyn Taylor as President, and a small international committee which included Norman Thompson (USA), Hajo Bruining (Netherlands), Richard Egdhal (USA), Yoshime Fujimoto (Japan), Per-Ola Granberg (Sweden), Tom Reeve (Australia), Hans Roeher (Germany), Witold Rudowski (Poland), and Sam Wells (USA). The IAES has continued to meet with the ISS/SIC every two years since that time and Orlo has attended every meeting, being elected as President of the IAES from 1995 to 1997.

Orlo studied Zoology at Cornell University from 1959-1963 before entering Medical School at Cornell graduating in 1967. He moved to UCSF where he was intern (1967-68), resident (1968-70), senior resident (1971-72), and chief resident (197273). He then completed a fellowship at the Royal Postgraduate Medical Centre, Hammersmith Hospital in London with Selwyn Taylor before returning to the staff of UCSF

Orlo however will be most remembered for his unconditional support of his residents, fellows, and colleagues worldwide. LD recalls visiting UCSF as the USA Travelling Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1988. On arrival in San Francisco, there was the invitation to stay at Orlo’s home sharing the basement guest room (with his dog), and sharing meals with Carol and his children whilst visiting the department at UCSF. It was at that time the concept of establishing an international fellowship in endocrine surgery in Sydney started. His strong support for his own fellows was subsequently demonstrated when he put forward a candidate f or that same fellowship .... (phone call from Orlo) “I am calling to twist your arm to take the best ever candidate for your fellowship...”. After the usual discussion, Orlo is asked the standard question of his plans for the candidate if the application is unsuccessful ...(response from Orlo) “that’s not going to happen because if you don't take my fellow, I’m not going to twist your arm I’m going to break it”. Needless to say, a very successful fellowship year ensued.

Orlo travelled extensively, not only to attend meetings and congresses, but also to visit endocrine surgery centers and meet esteemed colleagues in the IAES. JZ recalls, as a young and fairly inexperienced endocrine surgeon, going with g reat respect and almost a little fear to pick him up at the airport. It was not difficult to distinguish Orlo from the surrounding; his stateliness and charisma m ade him easily recognizable. The fear

one might have felt before meeting this true giant quickly disappeared, as he was extremely friendly, encouraging and very socially gifted. Respect was maintained, but you soon felt like a friend to Orlo. For the young surgeon, it was a joy to associate with him as he willingly shared his vast knowledge, experience and wisdom. But he also liked to talk about things other than endocrine surgery and asked interested questions about life and family - the latter Orlo memorized and could therefore ask adequate follow-up questions at the next opportunity. When traveling by car, Orlo (doubled up in the passenger seat) liked to tell us about his own car, “the best car ever made!”: his SAAB 99. This made at least one of us very proud... During surgery, he was happy to teach his tips and tricks, and there was always a very friendly atmosphere around the operating table. It is easy to state that if all mentors had Orlo's attitude and capabilities, we would easily have happy and super competent endocrine surgeons all over the w orld. His importance for global endocrine surgery can never be overestimated.

O rlo was always interested in promoting quality in endocrine surgery and he vigorously researched clinical problems to e ncourage better outcomes. Orlo was also never shy about giving advice to his older, more senior colleagues, including the avoidance of complications – amongst them post-operative bleeding. During one of his earliest visits to Sydney he was in the OR with TSR. Tom recalls - on finishing a thyroidectomy I asked for a drain. O rlo said “if the wound is that dry, why do you need a drain” I told him I always drained the neck. He said, “I would not close the neck unless the wound was that dry”. Drains disappeared my surgical armamentarium the next day. Meticulous hemostasis was critical and a message for all the trainees. I attended countless international meetings with Orlo over many decades. To be at a meeting in San Francisco always meant a meeting with Orlo, Carol and other endocrine surgeons from around the globe and it was always a

Orlo

convivial and enjoyable time with acknowledged leadership.

Orlo will also be remembered for his interests outside surgery including history and art. Together with his wife, Carol, he undertook a tour of European Art Galler-

ies leading to the publication of a book “ The Remarkables: Endocrine Abnormalities in Art” detailing the depictions in art galleries of the range of endocrine abnormalities. He also co-authored a history chapter in Surgical Endocrinopathies (Pasieka and Lee, 2015) on Thomas

D unhill, the Australian surgeon considered to be the father of modern thyroid surgery.

Orlo was honored as one of the American College of Surgeons Icons in Surgery i n 2016, and this year in Vienna he was awarded the International Society of Surgery ISS/SIC Honorary Fellowship. Orlo Clark will long be remembered as one of the greats of endocrine surgery.

Tom S Reeve, IAES President 1985-1987

Leigh Delbridge, IAES President 2009-2011

Jan Zedenius, IAES President 2022-present

Obituary:

Yoshiki Hiki (Professor Emeritus)

July 28, 1933 - October 14, 2022, ISS/SIC Honorary Fellow 2007

Yoshiki Hiki M.D., Ph.D., M.D. hon. Professor (em.) of Surgery, Kitasato University, Japan, who was an honorary member of the International Society of Surgery (ISS/ SIC), passed away on 14 October. He had played an important role in the activities of national and international surgical societies, especially in ISS/SIC. Since 1977, he had been an active member of the society. Between 1997 and 2004, he served as a council member, and in 2007 he was nominated as an honorary member.

Dr. Yoshiki Hiki was born on July 28, 1933, in Tokyo. He graduated from the School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, in 1958 and subsequently attended the Graduate School of Keio University and trained in

surgery. From 1963 to 1967 he worked as an assistant in the Department of Surgery, Keio University. During this period, he studied abroad as Assistenzarzt in the Department of Surgery, Kiel University, Germany. After coming back to Japan, he became Head of Endoscopic Laboratory of Keio University in 1967. Between 1971 and 2000 he was Professor of Surgery, Kitasato University, Sagamihara, Japan. In 1999 he became Professor Emeritus at Kitasato University. Dr. Hiki’s research interests inc luded surgical endoscopy, operative treatment in the field of gastroenterology, radical operation with lymphadenectomy, diagnosis and treatment for the early stage of gastrointestinal cancer, and endoscopic treatment of GI cancer (laser, laparoscopy, robotic surgery). He was active even a few years before his passing, participating in many professional fields in Japan and abroad, and working as Chairman of the Special Committee for Medical Costs of National Health Insurance; Trustee of the Sasaki Institute; Visiting Professor at Keio University; Head of the Probation Committee of Direction Medical Treatment for J apanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Director of the Yokogawa Medical Center; Trustee of Kyoritsu Pharmaceutical

University; and President of the Alumni Association of the School of Medicine, Keio University.

In addition, many honorary degrees were conferred on him by various medical societies in Japan and abroad. He held key positions in many academic and professional institutions, including Treasurer o f the International Gastric Cancer Association (1993–2007), Member of the D eutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (1997), Honorary Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (1998), Member of the Editorial Board of Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery (1998), Visiting Professor at the University of Korea and at the University of Singapore (1994), and Doctor honoris causa at the University of Wrocław, in Poland (2006). He had 433 publications (239 original papers, 104 reviews, 45 case reports, and 45 books/chapters) and made 1,078 presentations.

We now convey our sincere condolences on our great professor’s passing.

Yuko Kitagawa MD. PhD, FACS, hon ASA Professor and Chair