BSI Breast Surgery

Report BSI

BSI Outreach activities

In the past few months, BSI has carried out several outreach activities in low and middle income countries. To carry these outreach activities, BSI would like to thank the ISS Foundation for a donation of USD 20’000.

In 2012, BSI and IAES signed an MOU with the College of Surgeons Academy of Medicine Malaysia, and the Ministry of Health Malaysia to run 5 breast and

endocrine surgery (BES) courses for Malaysian surgeons. The 5th and last BES course was held in Kota Kinabalu on 17- 18 Nov 2017. The signing of a new MOU to continue the collaboration took place on 1 Nov 2018 in the Ministry of Health Malaysia, followed by the 6th BES Workshop on 2-3 Nov 2018 in Kuala Lumpur. It is hoped the BES Course will continue to train breast surgeons in Malaysia, a middle income country in South East Asia.

Besides Malaysia, BSI has held a breast surgery workshop with the South East Asian Breast Cancer Symposium (SEABCS) every year, in Vietnam in 2016, Myanmar in 2017 and Kuching Malaysia in 2018, and again at the next SEABCS in Bangkok in 2019. The recent BSI workshop in Kuching Malaysia on 5 August 2018 was aimed at general surgeons who perform breast surgery, noting that in most parts of South East Asia, there is a lack of breast surgeons and breast surgery is performed by general surgeons. There were almost 60 participants from around the region. The BSI team, namely Gaurav Agarwal from India, Omar Youssef from Cairo, and Owen Ung from Australia, were joined by surgeons from the region, and included in the programme was a discussion on breast surgery training in South East Asia.

The latest activity was the participation of BSI in the Association of Breast Surgeons of India Conference (ABSICON) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences from 9-11 Nov 2018. BSI was the academic partner and the Treasurer of BSI, Professor SVS Deo was the Organising Secretary of the conference. BSI was represented by the President-Elect of BSI, Professor Gaurav Agarwal and Council Member Professor Mikael Hartman. The conference was attended by 400 delegates and faculty. Novel sessions such as Breast Cancer Genetics for Surgeons, Low Cost Innovations, and dedicated sessions for survivors and support groups were organised. A cadaveric course of breast oncoplastic and reconstructive surgery was organised to train surgeons. BSI promotional activity was carried out including prominent display of BSI as an academic partner on all signages and websites and BSI pamphlets were distributed to delegates. A keynote lecture delivered by Professor Mikael Hartman was named as the BSI Lecture.

BSI programme in WCS Krakow Aug 2019

BSI has prepared an exciting programme for the WCS in Krakow in August 2019, with a theme of breast cancer in young women. There will be 2 preconference workshops on Sunday, 11 August 2019, one on Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery, and the second workshop on Innovative Surgical Procedures. There will be symposia, debates, as well as one combined session with the Polish Society of Surgical Oncology, and another combined session with ASAP (Alliance for Surgery and Anaesthesia Presence). I am pleased to announce that the Umberto Veronesi Lecturer 2019 is Professor Kerstin Sandelin, founder member of BSI and Honorary Fellow of the International Society of Surgery.

BSI will award 5 travel fellowships of USD 1’000 each. There will also be a prize of USD 400 resp. USD 200 for the two best posters, and two prizes for the breast oral presentation (First Prize USD 500 and Second Prize USD 250.)

I would like to invite everyone to have a look at the programme on the website: https://www.wcs2019.org/. The deadline for abstracts is 24 January 2019.

Omar Z. Youssef President BSI