ISS/SIC Newsletter May 2022

Newsletter International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) May 2022

Note by the ISS/SIC President John G. Hunter, President ISS/SIC & Congress President ISW 2022

Greetings, fellow members of the ISS/SIC. Spring has come to the northern hemisphere, Covid is receding, despite the ongoing blips that we are destined to see for some time to come. I wish that I could say that it was all good news, but the war in the Ukraine, the ongoing issues of climate change, an uncertain economy, and an increasingly polarized and volatile population are concerns to us all, wherever we live.

With that background of distress, the desire to re-engage with our friends and professional colleagues is stronger than ever, after two years in a virtual environment. We seek each other’s company, the sharing of experience, of sport, of ideas and observations, and – of course – the sharing of food, drink, and great conversation, punctuated with laughter.

Stephansdome Vienna

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I can tell you without hesitation where you will find all of these: Vienna, August 15-18.

I hope you will join us. Covid restrictions are falling daily, yet safety of our members remains paramount. It will be fun, and I suspect we all learn a few things to take back to our hospitals, clinics and surgical practices. In my presidential address I will be recounting the colorful history of the ISS/SIC over the last 117 years, including an event at our meeting 96 years ago that nearly altered 20th century history. What a teaser, right?

Our congress venue, the Hofburg palace is gorgeous, and Vienna in the summer

is a tourist’s dream. My daughter has already plotted out her walking routes around the historic district and the shops.

I am looking forward to the remarkable music planned for us, as well as the chance to reunite with so many friends and acquaintances I have met over my 35 year surgical career. Remember, if you register for the meeting early, you will save a fair amount of money. Don’t delay!

I could go on about the many other things that we are working on at the ISS/SIC, including a growing membership (YAY!) and a new publishing contract for the WJS. Then there are the ever more active inte-

grated societies who have embraced virtual education, bringing world changing innovation and game changing research to any corner of the world with broad band internet. But I will stop here and let you get back to your busy life, saving lives or completing today’s Wordle.  See you in Austria!

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

Report Secretary-General Kenneth D. Boffard, Secretary-General ISS/SIC

At the beginning of the year, I wrote “Best wishes for a Happy and successful 2022.

May we put a lot of the insecurity and uncertainty behind us, and we look forward to relative normality returning the course of this year.” What a roller-coaster year this has been. On the one hand, the conflict in the Ukraine has cast a shadow over Europe, and has completely altered world economics increased inflation, and insecurity. There does not seem to be any solution in sight, and our hearts are with the millions of victims that have been the result.

On the other hand, as each day passes, we understand more about the Covid pandemic, its consequences, and management both the disease itself, and of the demographics and consequences of the pandemic. Although now endemic in many places, it is still very much with us.

Strategies based on superstition or fear, have been replaced with vaccinations public health policies and more realism.

Austria is open, and we look forward to being back.

Ancient picture of the Hofburg, Vienna

Technicians in action at Hofburg, Vienna

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We are finally able to realise our delayed dream and the International Surgical Week – the World’s Congress of Surgery is a GO! We have enough attendees, enough submitted abstracts, enough ­resources and absolutely enough enthusiasm for this to become one of the most special and significant Congresses ever.

It is fully F2F. My special thanks to Prof Albert Tuchman, and his Austrian Team.

ISW is back, and I encourage as many of our members as possible to attend. The submissions have been of the expected high standard, the Scientific Programme from ISS/SIC and its Integrated, Participating and Associated Societies has been as comprehensive as ever, and our chosen venue of the Hofburg Palace, as you will see from the photographs in this newsletter all contribute to the unique nature of this meeting.

We look forward to meeting as many members as possible.

Kenneth D. Boffard Secretary-General ISS/SIC

Report General Treasurer Gerard M. Doherty, General Treasurer ISS/SIC

As the last report was just a couple of months ago, there is little to report. But for 2021, we are now seeing a positive result of 28’000 USD. The financial books are now at the external revision company for review. The auditors will check all ins and outs and create the Revision report 2021 for the General Assembly 2022 in Vienna. The financial closure for 2022 will be a challenge as the congress will get more expensive as planned due to unforeseen additional costs due to the venue and other activities. But, on the other hand, I can report that the ISS/SIC has some money for these scenarios. So I expect a black zero as a result for 2022.

Gerard M. Doherty General Treasurer ISS/SIC

At the World Museum, Vienna (© WienTourismus/Paul Bauer)

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Report Editor in Chief WJS Julie Ann Sosa, Editor in Chief WJS

Hello and greetings to members of the ISS/SIC from San Francisco, CA, USA! I hope that all of you are remaining healthy and safe as the pandemic continues. At least now we have something exciting to look forward to: International Surgical Week in Vienna in August 2022!

We continue to work very hard in the World Journal of Surgery editorial office on behalf of our authors and readers. In 2021, we received 2023 total submissions, which was down from the height of the pandemic (in 2020 we received 2741 submissions!) and more in line with recent years pre-pandemic. Our acceptance rate was 23% overall, so we continue to be se-

lective, publishing only the very best manuscripts received. The average number of days to first decision was 30, and the average number of days to a final decision of ‘reject’ was 27; both of these are the lowest in the history of WJS. We are very proud of these milestones and are thankful for the hard work and commitment of our peer reviewers, editorial board, and associate editors, who have prioritized journal service at a time of international stress and personal and professional duress. As a result of strong teamwork, our impact at WJS has increased across multiple metrics: WJS had 1,090,894 downloads in 2021, up from 854,270 in 2020 (an increase of about 28%!), and our impact factor rose to an all-time high of 3.352 in 2021, up from 2.234 in 2020 (an increase of more than 50%!).

With this transition, we have seen a slightly new look for our social media account.

This is an example of a recent visual abstract, highlighting another initiative from 2021: the creation of an inaugural Ombuds for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion among our editorial leadership.

We have brought on several new colleagues among our editorial leadership.

Drs Caroline Melhado and Keith Hansen of the USA became our Social Media Editors, responsible for creating visual abstracts that appear on Twitter; they replaced Drs Hari Keshava and Mohammad Ali Abbass, who transitioned from learners to faculty members in CA and IL, USA, respectively; welcome Caroline and Keith, and thank you for your service, Hari and Mohammad!

In 2021, we proudly published 25 My First Papers (that is, papers by authors who for the first time were in the first or senior author positions; congratulations all!), 11 We Asked the Experts reviews, 44 invited commentaries or editorials, 16 Inspirational Women in Surgery vignettes, and 2 sets of guidelines from the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society.

ERAS has proven to be a most valuable partner over the last several years, and we are thankful for their collaboration! We

Dr Sanziana Roman of the USA is our associate editor responsible for DEI, and in the last year, she reviewed 710 accepted manuscripts and flagged 19 as needing revision prior to publication. It will be interesting to see if other journals follow suit and bolster editorial leadership around DEI like WJS, especially in light of the #MedBikini controversy that rocked the vascular surgery community and which called into question the integrity of peer review in surgery.

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look forward to more guidelines to go on line in 2022.

The last important milestone that I’d like to recognize is the most recent: in March, we officially welcomed Dr Adam Gyedu of Ghana as Associate Editor for Trauma and Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMIC)!

He replaces Dr Charlie Mock of the USA, who served in this role for more than a decade. Having an Associate Editor from an LMIC is critically important to inform our peer review approach to manuscripts focusing on health equity and global surgery, and we very much look forward to

Dr Gyedu’s contributions. Thank you, Charlie, for your faithful service to WJS and for your collaboration during this important transition.

On behalf of our incredibly hard-working editorial board, associate editors, managing editor Laura Shearer, and our publisher, Erin Duffy, thank you for the privilege of service! I can’t wait to see many of you in Vienna in a few months. Meanwhile, keep sending your very best science to WJS. With gratitude, Julie Ann Sosa Editor in Chief WJS

Report ISS-Foundation Michael G. Sarr, Secretary/Treasurer ISS Foundation

As a secretary treasurer of the ISS Foundation, I am delighted to write this very brief update. As everyone knows, because of the Covid pandemic, very little international travel and educational in-country courses has happened; the outreach programs that the ISS/SIC supports as well as the travel scholars to the every other year ISS/SIC meeting have been put on hold, but we hope that will be able to resume all of this as soon as possible.

As in the last newsletter, we had hoped to have about 7 travel scholarships funded by the ISS Foundation and a few others funded via IATSIC, ISDS and ASAP; these specific travel scholarships are managed via the website of the ISS Foundation. The BSI and IAES have their own type of travel scholarships via their organization.

Several changes, unfortunately, have had to be made concerning the Vienna meeting this August

The “Volksgarten”, Museums and Parliament, Vienna

1. The ISS Foundation has decided not to offer travel scholarships funded by the ISSF, IATSIC, ISDS and ASAP for the 2022 meeting in Austria, there are too many variables with the COVID virus and especially in the last few weeks with this omicron variant.

2. The ISSF is planning actively to renew this travel scholarship program in 2024 more details will follow.

and anesthesiologists in the developing world through travel scholarships to our every other year meeting and via in-country educational seminars and hands-on training. Anyone or any group interested in developing an in-country educational course please contact me directly to help to facilitate this possibility.

Michael G. Sarr Secretary/Treasurer ISS Foundation

I will remind you that the mission of the ISSF is to promote education of surgeons

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Report Administrative Office Dear ISS/SIC members

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

We are excited to see many of you in ­Vienna at ISW 2022 which promises to be a great event in a fantastic city. ISW 2022 is planned as a fully physical meeting and presentations will not be broadcasted elsewhere – so take the opportunity to attend in person.

Remember to join the ISS/SIC General Assembly 2022 to be held on 17th August 2022 at 12:15 hrs at ISW 2022 in Vienna.

The Council is looking forward welcoming many ISS/SIC members there.

As a current ISS/SIC member you are privileged for a reduced ISW 2022 registration fee, so make sure your membership is current, our staff will be happy

to support you in case of queries or obstacles.

See you in August in Vienna!

With our best wishes.

Administrative Office team Visit us on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Message from ISW 2022 National President Albert Tuchmann, ISW 2022 National Congress President

Vienna / International Surgical Week is calling!

After two years of congress-absence from the international stage we, ISS/SIC are happy to announce to you: “The International Surgical Week” (ISW2022) / World Congress of Surgery, www.isw2022.org in Vienna, Austria; August, 15 – 18, 2022.

The ISW2022 welcomes the Integrated Societies of ISS/SIC: IAES, IATSIC, IASMEN, BSI, ISDS, and ASAP, the Associated and Participating Societies, esp. Students and Young Surgeons (IASSS) and our friends from Latin America (FELAC)!

The city of Vienna is one of the best places you can visit in August 2022: Full of beauty, history, culture, music, garden, gastronomy, … nevertheless one of the safest cities in the world, … we even hope to control the Covid problem at that time!

Please, come all to Vienna and ISW2022 in August!

Best wishes!

Albert Tuchmann National Congress President

Beethoven-­ Memorial at Beethovenplatz (© WienTourismus/ Paul Bauer)

As a World Congress the ISW2022 will offer the latest results of surgical research and discuss it!, continuing education as well as worldwide networking.

Surgeons of 95 countries will register!! – … and that all “face to face”!

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Report IAES Akira Miyauchi, President IAES

Janice L. Pasieka, Secretary-Treasurer IAES

The pandemic of COVID-19 infection appeared to settle at the end of last year in many countries. With the advent of the Omicron strain, it has spread rapidly around the world again. However, recently, the number of new cases has been gradually decreasing in many countries.

It is difficult to accurately predict the situation in August of this year when the International Surgical Week 2022 will be held, but we are optimistic that it will be held in-person in Vienna, Austria. Unfortunately the recent events in Ukraine have all of our International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (IAES) members concerned about much anticipated the peaceful return to ‘normal’ following these stressful two years. Our hearts go out to our Ukrainian colleagues and the citizens of Ukraine. Let’s hope that peace will reign over this troubled world in the coming weeks and allow the Ukrainian people the freedom to return safely home to their native land.

The IAES council and program committee is working hard to prepare for our 2022 meeting in Vienna. Thanks to the Local Arrangement Chair, Professor Bruno Niederle, the social events are as follows: The IAES designated hotel will The Flemings Deluxe, located within walking distance of both the conference center and the City Hall. A Welcoming Reception for IAES members will be held at our hotel on Sunday August 14th. Our Gala Dinner

will be held at City Hall thanks to the generous invitation from the Mayor of Vienna to the IAES members on the evening of Tuesday August 16th. What an honour for the IAES to be guests of the Mayor that evening at this historical venue. Thank you Bruno! Both of these events will be a wonderful opportunity for the IAES members to once again meet in person and renew old and make new friendships.

One of our founding members and former presidents, Per-Ola Granberg coined the term the ‘The Friendly Society’ and we have made sure this year’s program will include much needed social time as well as great science. Be sure to purchase your “IAES Social Event Package” (which includes both the Welcoming Reception and the Gala Dinner) when registering for the meeting as tickets will be required to attend both of these events. The academic program for the IAES will be held from Monday August 15th to Wednesday August 17th, leaving the 18th open for you to explore the city and surrounding area or take in a few ISS lectures.

Our IAES program will include the Presidential Address by Akira Miyauchi, the Peter-Heimann Lecture by Shunichi Yamashita, Interesting Cases lead by Janice Pasieka, and the “Eye-opening” IAES Endocrine Video Session chaired by Barb Miller and Dana Hartl. New this year, will be an Endocrine Surgical Tumour Board during our Luncheon Session chaired by

Tracy Wang and Simon Harper. Lunch will be provided thanks to a kind donation for this session from Kuma Hospital. This year’s panel session chaired by Peter Angelos and Geoff Thompson is titled Scientific [mis] Conduct and the Care of Surgical Patients. This not to be missed panel will be sure to stimulate discussion about scientific integrity and the role we all have in helping protect it. Martha Zeiger and Stan Sidhu have brought together a great panel of surgical scientists in the session Highlighting Basic Science in Endocrine.

We will end the IAES meeting with a session on The Some New, Exciting and Ready for ‘Realtime’ Advances in Endocrine Surgery. This session will feature Thyroid Nodule Ablative Techniques, chaired by Mark Sywak and Fluorescence-based Parathyroid Detection, chaired by Fred Triponez. The Abstract Selection Committee is currently working through 154 abstracts to select the best papers for our 24 Free Paper Oral Presentations and 60 Poster Presentations.

On behalf of the IAES Council, we look forward to seeing you in August in Vienna, the city of history, beauty and music.

Akira Miyauchi President IAES Janice L. Pasieka Secretary-Treasurer IAES

From classical to modern music ­there is something for every taste on the stages of Vienna

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Report IATSIC Elmin Steyn, President IATSIC

Scott D’Amours, President elect and Acting President IATSIC

Report on the activities of IATSIC January 2022 – April 2022 Although the COVID-19 pandemic at the moment has varying impacts around the globe, many jurisdictions are working towards managing the best way of ‘living with’ the virus rather than drastically restricting activity. With that in mind, we are very excited to be getting together (COVID safely, of course) in Vienna in August- for International Surgical Week.

DSTC and DATC training course ­activities • Despite obvious COVID-related difficulties, 23 courses were held in 2021 and already a few courses have been held in 2022 with many more planned through the year.

• The updated slide sets are being utilized and small errors and typos will continue to be corrected.

Webinars • The IATSIC executive hopes that the members are continuing to enjoy the webinar program as it strives to provide stimulating presentations with collaborations from around the world including ESTES, ANZAST, the Milpark Trauma Unit and our Scandinavian colleagues.

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

Global commitments WHO Collaboration • This IATSIC-WHO collaboration continues towards development of an advanced operative trauma management course of particular importance in locations where access to education and resourcing are a substantially limited. IATSIC along with the WHO believe that all surgeons need access to high quality trauma surgical education and it is hoped that this collaboration will assist in that aim.

• Tina Gaarder and Tim Hardcastle are continuing to work hard on this project as draft contributions are completed by our outstanding group of international contributors from varying resource environments around the world. Thank you to all of them for participating in this very important piece of work.

• The project will become a very important and accessible resource for those who need it most.

Suppor t to surgeons and doctors in Ukraine • Since our last newsletter we have been horrified by the images and stories of injuries emerging from conflict in Ukraine.

• We have been asked to supply educational materials on management of injury- in the form of ‘how to’ instructional videos and similar- to our colleagues there. The response from the international community of trauma surgeons and IATSIC members has been outstanding. We have been able to have much of this translated in a very short period of time and transmitted it to those who can use it via a shared Google folder.

49 th ISW 2022 (Vienna 15 – 18 August 2022) conference preparation: • We continue to prepare for the 49th International Surgical Week to take place in Vienna, Austria August 15 – 18.

• We can’t wait to see you there! The pandemic has really demonstrated

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how important networking is, with face to face exchange of knowledge and ideas in addition to meeting friends and having a great time together.

The programme is complete for IATSIC including combined sessions with other integrated societies. It is now available on the ISS/SIC website as are details for registration.

Special thanks to our scientific program chair Tina Gaarder- and the IATSIC executive- for their hard work in finalising a wonderful program!

The review of abstracts has been completed and there were so many wonderful submissions. We look forward to having these for you both as podium presentations and posters.

As for all the previous ISS/SIC congresses, IATSIC has chosen a special hotel as its headquarters in Vienna.

The Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere will be a lovely place to stay, to meet and relax- and we hope you will join us there.

We have negotiated a special price for the rooms we have reserved and also a special cancellation deal (the rooms can be cancelled until 48 hours before arrival). King Bed Rooms at € 150,00 (single occupancy) per room per night and € 180,00 (double occupancy) per room per night.

Please find below the link where you can directly enter your personal information and credit card details.

IATSIC – ISS Congress 2022 (hyatt. com) (alternatively: https://www. hyatt.com/de-DE/group-booking/ VIEAZ/G-IATS).

Additionally, a special venue is being selected for the IATSIC dinner- please arrange to attend as part of your ISW registration. We are delighted to be planning dinner along with Integrated Society members from ASAP and IASSS on Tuesday, August 16th.

Membership • The ISS/SIC administrative team have graciously enabled us to offer a first year of free membership to

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attendees at DS/ATC courses who apply for membership while attending the course. Please contact the ISS/SIC central office for slides/posters to advertise membership during courses.

IATSIC leadership, constitution and bylaws • The bylaws and constitution of IATSIC are being reviewed, and as mentioned previously, proposed changes will be submitted to membership before our AGM. • Please watch for this information in the coming months

Best wishes from the IATSIC executive committee.

Elmin Steyn, President Scott D’Amours, President Elect and Acting President Hayato Kurihara, Secretary/Treasurer Tina Gaarder, Past President and ­Congress Program Chair

Please begin making your plans now to join us for International Surgical Week in Vienna in August. Book your hotel as soon as you can and we look forward to seeing you there!

Report IASMEN Anders Thorell, President IASMEN

Dear IASMEN members.

In many quarters, it appears the ongoing effects of COVID-19 are eroding and many institutions around the world are now lifting some restrictions on activities, though serious concerns remain in the background. Not to forget the terrible situation in Ukraine with millions of people suffering tremendously.

IASMEN and the ISS/SIC abandoned our meeting in Kuala Lumpur last year and in

accord with recent events has now been resurrected with a meeting in August this year (2022) in Vienna. The ISS/SIC Council met virtually in March to discuss continuing the VSW and the upcoming programme and events in Vienna, which looks to be another great meeting. Please visit the ISW website for more details (https://isw2022.org). And not to worry, Kuala Lumpur will be the next site for the ISS/SIC meeting in 2024! An intervening virtual meeting (VSW) in 2023 is also planned.

In the interim, a ‘virtual surgical week’ (VSW) was held Aug 30 – Sep 3 2021, which according to reports was a great success. We received many good comments, and I would again like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who contributed by presentations, comments, discussions and attendance at the meeting.

IASMEN had one session on various aspects of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), a session on nutritional aspects of patients in the ICU, and a ­ nother session was focused on the impact of metabolic and nutritional issues on the outcome after various types of surgery.

These were well received, and we look forward to future intervening meetings where we can present new and interest-

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ing data in addition to our usual biannual face-to-face meeting.

For the upcoming meeting in Vienna, IASMEN will again host a State-of-theArts session on ‘ERAS and long term cancer outcomes’ and ‘Pre-habilitation for elective procedures’ on Monday 15 August 2022. Another general session will be held on Tuesday 16 August 2022 with presentations on ERAS (in conjunction with ISBI), the Patiño Lecture, Poster Presentations, and the Business Meeting. A Free Papers session will be held on Wednesday 17 August 2022, and fi-

nally another session on improving metabolism in surgical care, the Presidential Address, and a combined session with ISDS on nutrition will be held on Thursday 18 August 2022. We’ve got a packed programme in store, and we look forward to great presentations and discussion. Of note, following such events more closely has been made possible by the efforts of Naomi Nakayama, (IASMEN Secretary SNS communication), on Facebook and Twitter.

on emerging investigators and clinicians, our Secretary General, Joji Kotani, has actively approached several of the PEN-societies in Asia in order to find ways to increase our number of members for future collaboration. We have similar plans for our European and American colleagues.

Best wishes to all of you in these challenging times.

Anders Thorell President IASMEN

In order to further attract new colleagues for membership in IASMEN with a focus

University of Vienna, reproduction of the ceiling paintings by Gustav Klimt

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Report BSI Gaurav Agarwal, President BSI

Sharon W.W. Chan, Honorary Secretary BSI

After two years of disappointment and all the tough times owing to the COVID pandemic, we step into 2022, with renewed optimism. And voila… a face-to-face ISW 2022 is going to happen at Vienna, Austria on 15th to 18th Aug 2022. BSI is motivated to join the meeting and is excited to meet you all soon, in flesh-and-blood, during the beautiful summer times in Europe!

BREAST SURGERY INTERNATIONAL at INTERNATIONAL SURGICAL WEEK Sunday 14th – Thursday 18th August 2022 The BSI program chair Dr Jean Francois Boileau has planned an extraordinary program which feature experts both locally and from all around the world, who

will present state-of-the-art sessions in breast cancer management. These sessions include updates in management of the axilla and oncoplastic breast surgery.

The BSI main sessions will cover neoadjuvant therapy and management of highrisk patients. The greatly anticipated and very informative “BSI debate” and “Stump the Expert” sessions are always a highlight of the BSI meeting and will again be part of the program. New in 2022, the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS)

and Breast Surgery International (BSI) will hold joint sessions that will cover important topics in global health and gender issues related to breast cancer care. It is with immense pleasure that we will welcome Professor Michael Gnant, Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, and a world leader in breast surgical oncology, to deliver the 2022 BSI Umberto Veronesi Lecture. The popular pre-congress BSI course- “Advanced Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery Course” will be held on Sunday 14th Aug 2022 at the Medical University Vienna. There is a large turn-out and a keen contest for the BSI Free Paper Prize and BSI Poster Prize. BSI Travel Award will be awarded to young surgeons from low-and-middle income countries who have an abstract accepted for oral or poster presentation in the BSI program of the congress. Do not miss this highly educative and enjoyable meeting, and a great social experience at Vienna after a long time!

BREAST SURGERY INTERNATIONAL WEB-UTORIAL 5 December 2021 Second BSI web-utorial was held live on 5th December 2021 under the moderation

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of Omar Z Youssef from Egypt and Farid Meybodi from Australia. The theme of the meeting was oncoplastic breast surgery and the speakers were Susanna Kauhanen from Finland, Elisabeth Elder and Farid Meybodi from Australia, Dick Rainsbury and Lynda Wyld from the UK. In the first part of the web-utorial, the technical aspects and outcome of various oncoplastic breast surgery techniques were stressed during the lectures and in the second part, the education and training for breast surgery were discussed by hearing different experiences from different regions of the world such as at the UK, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Australia provided by the panelists including Kerstin Sandelin from Sweden, Lynda Wyld from the UK, Bahadir Gulluoglu from Turkey and Elisabeth Elder from Australia. More than 200 participants were online during the meeting and the faculty answered all the questions coming from the audience.

The web-utorial was held in a casual and friendly environment.

Web-utorial was held on 7th May 2022 (2:00 pm CEST) and the topic is: “High Risk Lesions- Challenging issues for surgeons”. The BSI web-utorial, like always will be free of charge for all at the time of first broadcast. After the first broadcast, Webinars will be available for BSI members only. Registration is open, and can be done through the BSI website www.bsisurgery.org or ISS/SIC website.

With best wishes.

Gaurav Agarwal President BSI Sharon Chan Honorary Secretary BSI

FUTURE BSI EVENTS C o n t i n u i n g w i t h t h e s e r i e s of B S I Web-utorials ( Webinars), the latest

Report ISDS Alessandro Fichera, President ISDS

Jamie Murphy, ­President elect ISDS

During the COVID-19 pandemic the ISDS executive council was focused on maintaining visibility and remaining relevant to its membership. One of the ways by which that was achieved was the provision of academic / educational resources.

Consequently, ISDS organized a comprehensive program of monthly webinars that ran from April 2021 and has just finished this month. This required extensive input and hard work from the ISDS executive council, which rose to the challenge and delivered an extremely high quality educational resource to a very strict time table.

The webinars have been extremely well received and attended and the ISDS executive council will consider whether webinars will be a feature for future ‘off’ years when ISW doesn’t occur.

With early signs suggesting that the pandemic may be transitioning to an endemic we are now looking forward to an in person meeting. We truly hope that the COVID-19 situation will remain sufficiently stable for us to be able to see each other again in Vienna. The ISDS programme contribution to the ISW has been completed and speakers have been confirmed.

Given the risk of regional COVID-19 outbreaks contingency plans have been drawn up by the ISDS executive council to deal with programme slots that may become vacant due to inability of speakers to travel. The scientific abstract submission deadline has passed, the marking of the ISDS abstract has begun, and this process will be completed by the time of the ISS virtual council meeting.

At the upcoming 2022 International Surgical Week I have the distinct honour of beginning my tenure as the ISDS president. It will be my great pleasure to take

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on that baton and build upon the hard work and considerable achievements of Prof Alessandro Fichera who has done an exceptional amount to steer ISDS through the difficulties of the past 3 years.

ISDS could not have been in safer hands throughout that time and in no small part has that been due to Prof Fichera’s outstanding administrative skills. I would like to thank Prof Fichera for all he has done for ISDS and the support he has given me, and to wish him every success for his future endeavours. I know that he will remain a staunch supporter of ISDS and a great source of guidance for the executive committee.

Jamie Murphy President Elect ISDS

The Festsaal at Hofburg, Vienna

Report ASAP Russell L. Gruen, President ASAP

The Global Surgery community lost one of its greatest champions last month – Professor Paul Farmer, who passed away in Rwanda at age 62. A medical anthropologist and infectious diseases physician, Paul was co-founder of Partners in Health, and an inspiration for many surgeons and other students and practitioners of medicine. Setting the scene for everything that has followed in Global Surgery, he and Jim Kim published a paper entitled “Surgery and Global Health: a view from beyond the OR” in the WJS in 2008, in which they famously said “surgery is the neglected stepchild of global health.” He went on to be tireless advocate and supporter of global surgery, especially through the Lancet Commission, and his leadership of the Harvard Fellowship Program. Paul will be missed enormously by all who had the privilege to know him or to know of him. The first ASAP session on Monday 11th August at

Action at the Theater an der Wien (© WienTourismus/Paul Bauer)

the International Surgical Week in Vienna will be a tribute to his life and his contributions to Global Surgery.

The ISS/SIC has put together a wonderful program for International Surgical Week in Vienna, and we are very much looking forward to the congress and promise an excellent ASAP program. Not only will we pay tribute to Paul Farmer’s legacy, but

there will other ASAP sessions, combined sessions with IATSIC, AWS and ISS-SIC, and the specialty dinner which, as usual we will share with IATSIC. Prior to the dinner on Tuesday 12th August there will be a special reunion event of the original Burden of Surgical Disease Working Group.

ASAP has evolved a lot since the BSDWG was founded in 2007 to foster research about surgery in low and middle income

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countries, and which changed its name to the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence in 2010. Following the Lancet Commission in Global Surgery and the Disease Control Priorities 3rd Edition which had significant section on surgery, ASAP became an integrated society of ISS/SIC in 2013 and focused its attention of advocacy, leading up to the World Health Assembly Resolution in 2015, and the subsequent roll-out of global surgery indicators and national surgical plans. The global surgery community has benefited greatly from the founders of the BSDWG and ASAP.

As many surgical societies across the world join in solidarity, it is time to again consider the ways ASAP can most significantly lead and contribute to the mission of promoting access to safe affordable surgery and anaesthesia care when needed for everyone. Is it through research and advocacy? Or is through career development and mentoring, or education, capacity building, and leadership training?

Perhaps it’s through providing a forum for interdisciplinary engagement of surgeons, anesthesiologists and other surgical professionals? This is an important conversation to shape the future of one of the old-

est and influential global surgery groups, and one that needs the wisdom of all members of ASAP and anyone interested in Global Surgery in ISS/SIC. We will convene this discussion in Vienna after the tribute to Paul Farmer on the afternoon of Monday 15th August, notification of the exact time and location will be provided in due course.

Looking forward to seeing you in Vienna.

Russell Gruen President ASAP

Report IASSS Shadé Breedt, President IASSS

Jessica Davies, Administration Officer IASSS

The International Association of Student Surgical Societies (IASSS) is excited to embark on a new year with a new committee and prospects of International Surgical Week in Vienna, Austria in August!

Over the last year and a half, our membership base has been rapidly increasing and we are now boasting 1 307 members. Many of these members are part of societies partnered with the IASSS, but a substantial number are independent members with no surgical society in their home town. Over the last 2 months, we have had an increase in followers on our social media platforms by 5%.

We are excited to host two new positions on our committee this year, namely the

Talks Portfolio and a Senior Consultant.

We hope to host regular talks throughout the year, and found it more appropriate to create a portfolio dedicated to achieving that.

In this way, we can provide our members with regular events to enrich their minds and expand their understanding of the field of surgery.

Our Senior Consultant position is aimed at providing mentorship to our Academy Portfolio for research-related projects and is also aimed at pioneering the Mentorship programme. We want to expand our reach and make our society more applicable for post-graduates and this portfolio was created with that goal in mind.

We look forward to International Surgical Week (ISW) hosted by the ISS/SIC in Vienna, Austria in August this year. We will be hosting three sessions, namely the Great Debate, Scalpel to Scope and a Global Surgery Theory of Change Workshop.

Our Great Debate session is a more informal session aimed at light-hearted debate between specialists from different fields. Scalpel to Scope will focus on progression in surgical innovation and compare the execution of a particular procedure in countries of different socio-economic backgrounds.

Lastly, our Theory of Change Workshop aims to inspire students to consider the challenges faced in different contexts and innovate change to address health inequalities and inequities.

Additionally, we are running our Future Surgeons Programme this year which will allow a group of delegates to attend the conference in Vienna. Applications are already open and we are very excited to bring our delegates to Austria in August.

We hope to organise a full itinerary of sight-seeing and socials with doctors at the conference and will have a dinner with IATSIC on 16th August 2022.

Aside from ISW, the IASSS will continue to provide our members with regular talks, how-to-guides and book reviews throughout the year.

Shadé Breedt President IASSS Jessica Davies Administration Officer IASSS

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Memories from Global Surgery Initiative

By Hisham Abdullah, Councilor ISS/SIC

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SURGERY Administrative Office (ISS/SIC) Seefeldstrasse 88 CH-8008 Zurich Switzerland Phone: Fax: E-Mail: Web:

+41 44 533 76 50 +41 44 533 76 59 surgery@iss-sic.com www.iss-sic.com

Eminiscing the wonderful moment pre covid-19 December 2018, Rob Parkyn (Adelaide) and I travel to Cox Bazaar to support the global surgery initiative and assist the Rohingya Refugee Relief centre/Malaysian Field Hospital at Cox’s Bazaar Bangladesh.

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NOTE: International Surgical Week ISW is a fully physical congress, presentations will not be broadcasted anywhere. Take the opportunity to attend in person!

Vienna, Austria Vienna, Austria Vienna, Austria 15-18 August 2022 15-18 August 2022 15-18 August 2022

49th World Congress of the International Society of Surgery ISS/SIC 49th World Congress of the International Society of Surgery ISS/SIC 49th World Congress of the International Society of Surgery ISS/SIC

International Surgical Week International Surgical The World's Congress of Surgery Surgical Week isw2022.org International Week The World's Congress of Surgery isw2022.org The World's Congress of Surgery

Congress President: National Congress President: Congress President: National Congress President: John G. Hunter, USA Albert Tuchmann, Austria Congress President: National Congress President: John G. Hunter, USA Albert Tuchmann, Austria John G. Hunter, USA Tuchmann, International Society ofAlbert Surgery ISS / Austria SIC International Society of Surgery ISS / SIC and its Integrated Societies International Society of Surgery ISS / SIC and its Integrated Societies

IAES - International Association of Endocrine Surgeons and its Integrated Societies IAES - International Association offor Endocrine IATSIC - International Association Trauma Surgeons Surgery and Intensive Care IAES - International Association offor Endocrine Surgeons IATSIC - International Association Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care IASMEN - International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition IATSIC - International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care IASMEN - International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition BSI - Breast Surgery International IASMEN International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition BSI - -Breast SurgerySociety International ISDS International for Digestive Surgery BSI SurgerySociety International ISDS- -Breast for Digestive Surgery ASAP -International Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence ISDS Societyand for Digestive Surgery ASAP--International Alliance for Surgery Anesthesia Presence ASAP - Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence

isw2022.org

Abstract Deadline Abstract Deadline Abstract Deadline 28 February 2022 28 February 28 February 2022 2022 surgery@iss-sic.com surgery@iss-sic.com surgery@iss-sic.com

isw2022.org isw2022.org isw2022.org

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