ASAP Anaesthesia

Report ASAP

Dear Colleagues and Friends

I am excited to share the many wonderful things currently happening within ASAP and the ISS/SIC that have great potential to impact our mission to advance surgical and anesthesia care for the underserved around the world.

ISS/SIC and Global Surgery

First - under Andrew Hill’s leadership as ISS/SIC President, the ISS/SIC is embracing global surgical care as central to its mission. This is obviously great news for all of us dedicated to this work. President Hill has been exploring a variety of partnerships with organizations in LMICs and will chair a special panel on the topic in Krakow, Poland which will nicely augment the strong program ASAP has put together for the 48th World Congress of Surgery WCS 2019.

Second - several important updates to the ISS/SIC Constitution and Bylaws were unanimously passed at the “extraordinary General Assembly” of the ISS/SIC held during the American College of Surgeons’ annual Clinical Congress in Boston MA in late October. Going forward, the membership dues for ISS/SIC will be stratified according World Bank country income levels, with low income country members prorated at 25% of full dues; lower middle income country members at 50%; and upper middle income country members at 75%. In addition, dues for members under the age of 40 will be assessed at half the cost at each level, including in high income countries. This new dues structure will be active as of January 1, 2019.

In addition, the updated Constitution now includes provisions for medical students

to become members. Lastly, there is clarification that all “persons and entities who identify themselves with the purpose and the objective of the Society may apply for membership,” inclusive of medical doctors and non-medical specialists . . . i.e., our nursing colleagues, global health coordinators, and others who have traditionally been part of the ASAP “family”.

Please spread the news widely on each of these advances in ISS/SIC membership policy, which can be reviewed online (http://iss-sic.com/files/iss_ sic_2019_constitution.pdf). Another positive development is that the ISS/SIC Administrative Office has been committed to improving the membership process, implementing an online application and a streamlining quicker approval notifications. We are hopeful that these proposed changes in dues structure will enable more of our colleagues from LMICs to join ISS/SIC and also hope to reengage many of our former associates who have previously been unable to formally join ISS/SIC.

Over the coming months ASAP will be formally updating our Constitution and Bylaws so that they align with the revised ISS/SIC Constitution. We’ll formally vote to adopt these in Krakow next August and will share the proposed changes in advance to allow a comment period from the ASAP membership.

ASAP on the Agenda

2018 continues to be a particularly busy year for ASAP. We’ve just wrapped up our official annual meeting which was held in conjunction with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in the US. It was another successful conference with a strong faculty and plenty of opportunities to engage participants in dialog. We featured speakers from global surgery, anesthesia, obstetrics, and surgical nursing, representing the academic and research perspective, the NGO perspective, and the medical student and resident perspectives. Topics covered included global health ethics, educational partnerships and collaborations, best practices and challenges, pain management, innovations, and global health advocacy. In addition, we were able to network with the broader global health community

dedicated to children’s health and well-being, which presented some unique opportunities to remind others in the field of the critical importance of surgical and anesthesia care and discuss possibilities for collaboration across disciplines. Great thanks to ASAP Secretary Liz Drum for all of her many contributions to the success of this event.

ASAP is honored to have played a role in planning the upcoming 2018 COSECSA conference to be held in Kigali, Rwanda in early December. This year’s conference has dual themes – Surgical Infection and Global Surgery and will feature a panel sponsored by ASAP. In what we believe is a new element at a COSECSA meeting, ASAP has also facilitated a joint meeting of the Rwandan Anesthesia Society (RAS) within the COSECSA conference. Taking advantage of the synchronicity of ASAP Council member, Paulin Banguti currently serving as President of the RAS, ASAP will be contributing to the both the COSECSA and RAS programs. We are also thrilled to have the support of ISS/ SIC President Andrew Hill at these events and welcome the opportunity to showcase the work of ASAP and the ISS/SIC.

Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of being an invited speaker at the two largest international gatherings of medical students interested in surgical careers, the International Association of Student Surgical Societies (IASSS) conference in Bucharest, Romania and the International Student Surgical Network (InciSioN) conference in Leuven Belgium. I’m so energized by these two groups and look forward to welcoming members of both into the ISS/SIC in the coming year and particularly welcome the opportunity to collaborate with them on the future of global surgery.

Among the many meetings each year that feature ASAP members speaking about Global Surgery, the General Surgeons Australia (GSA) meeting in Fiji in early October was particularly ASAPrich event, featuring our Past-Presidents Kelly McQueen and Steve Bickler, honorary Past-President David Watters, and current Vice-President, Russ Gruen as speakers.

We have requests for speakers at a number of events – if you are interested in representing ASAP in this capacity, please let us know.

Krakow

As you are all aware, the next biennial World Congress of Surgery of the ISS/ SIC will be held August 11-15 in Krakow, Poland. ASAP has assembled a robust and forward looking agenda that runs throughout the four days of the conference. Be sure to make your plans so as to be able to enjoy the entirety of the meeting. We are thrilled to share that half the expert speakers included in ASAP program for Krakow hail from LMICs. And

we are pleased to be jointly presenting plenary sessions with the International Association of Trauma and Surgical Intensive Care (IATSIC), the International Association for Endocrine Surgery (IAES), Breast Surgery International (BSI), the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) and the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS).

Our traditional ASAP dinner will be on the evening of Tuesday, August 12, held in conjunction with IATSIC again which promises to be another energetic, enjoyable and unforgettable event in a wonderful setting in historic Krakow. Stay tuned for further details!

Important Deadlines for your Calendar

There are several rapidly approaching deadlines over the next several months to be aware of.

December 31, 2018 - Nominations are due for the various prestigious ISS/SIC Awards which will be formally recognized in Krakow, including the ISS/SIC Prize, the Robert Danis Prize, the René Leriche Prize and ISS/SIC Honorary Membership. Application forms and further information on each are available online at http://iss-sic.com/about/awards-ofiss-sic.html.

January 24, 2019 – Deadline for submission of abstracts to be considered for both oral and poster presentation during International Surgical Week / the World’s Congress of Surgery in Krakow Poland, August 11-15, 2019. https://www.wcs2019.org/abstracts

January 31, 2019 – Applications for ISS Fellowship should be submitted by December 31, 2018 in order to be considered for induction at the 2019 World’s Congress of Surgery in Krakow in August. To learn more about this honorary category of ISS/SIC membership which has been recently implemented, visit http://iss-sic.com/membership/ fellowship.html.

Lastly, please keep in mind that it will soon be time to consider nominations for a number of leadership roles in ASAP, including the Treasurer position (2 year term), the ASAP representative to the WJS Editorial Board (5 year term), as well as committee chairs which also serve on the ASAP Council.

As the upcoming holiday season approaches, I wish health and happiness to you and yours -

Respectfully submitted, Kathleen M. Casey President, Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence