ISS/SIC Newsletter May 2020

ISDS Report

Alessandro Fichera, President ISDS

The year after the congress is a year of planning and hard work. The ISDS had a very successful and stimulating congress in Krakow and we are all looking forward to another unique experience at the International Surgical Week - The World Congress of Surgery (ISW 2021) in Kuala Lumpur.

We have approached the planning phase by revamping the subcommittees of the

Society to better align them with the ISDS constitutional changes proposed and approved in Krakow. We have three subcommittees: International, Membership and Education, each chaired by one of the ISDS Vice presidents. They have been tasked with defining a mission statement and achievable goals for the next two years. They will give quarterly reports to the ISDS President on the committee progress

and plans moving forward. A forth subcommittee was also brought back: the Program Committee. For the 2021 congress the ISDS program has been put together by the Program Committee divided by segments of the GI tract, staffed by Executive Committee members with few exceptions and chaired by the ISDS President. We had a meeting on Sunday October 27, 2019 in San Francisco during the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons that officially started the planning phase. Working together virtually we had a rapid turnaround and delivered an outstanding scientific program with several changes and improvements. We took the suggestion from the ISS/SIC President Dr. John Hunter and built the scientific sessions to include “state of the

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art” talks and debates. We will have a pre-congress workshop that will include hands-on and formal lectures in conjunction with the Local Organizing Committee, under the leadership of Dr. April Roslani geared towards trainees and young surgeons. For the first time we will sponsor two travel scholars with a grant that will help them with the cost of attending the Congress. We will also have for the first time a ISDS Gastrointestinal

Surgical Emergency Postgraduate Course chaired and staffed by members of the Executive Committee. Overall the ISDS program will include: 8 Free Paper sessions, 8 Main sessions, Postgraduate Course NEW, 4 Combined sessions: 1 with IATSIC, 1 with FELAC NEW and 2 with IASMEN, Kitajima and Grassi Prize sessions, ISDS General Assembly and the ISDS Presidential Lecture.

I am humbled and honored to be leading such a talented, diverse and hard-working group of surgeons and I am looking forward to a very successful road to ISW 2021.

Respectfully submitted

Alessandro Fichera President ISDS

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