Newsletter International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) May 2018
Welcome by the President
Andrew G. Hill, President ISS/SIC
Dear Friends I have now been President of the ISS/SIC for six months. As I wrote last time it is my hope that we can grow as a Society and grow in our usefulness for Surgeons throughout the world. We are uniquely positioned to do this as we have members in over 100 countries and have a strong reputation amongst surgeons worldwide. I have just returned from a visit to Krakow to see the city and the venue for our conference next year. This is going to be a fantastic meeting. The city is a great place to visit and the conference venue is world class and nice and compact meaning that this will be a great place for renewing of friendships and the making of new ones.
The Wawel Cathedral at Krakow, Poland (© Jar.ciurus)
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The ISS/SIC Executive Committee at the March 2018 Meeting
Following this was our Executive Committee meeting in Zurich. At this meeting we focussed on growing our membership, the programme for the upcoming World Congress, and Global Surgery and how we might be involved. In a few weeks I will be travelling to the US to meet with leaders from the American College of Surgeons to discuss how we might work together to enable a global vision for postgraduate (that following surgical training) education across the world. I am often asked by people why they should join the Society. I guess that there are a few obvious benefits to individuals such as the Journal, cheaper rates for the Congress and the enjoyment of international networking opportunities offered nowhere else. But the real benefits are about being involved in the broad area of being a Global Surgical Citizen, something much bigger than ourselves, the opportunity to help others and to use our surgical knowledge and experience to develop surgery throughout the world, fulfilling the mission of the ISS/SIC to further the art and science of surgery worldwide. It is vital that all surgeons who see this is important to join us and to get involved.
Without you we will not be able to fulfil our mission and in reality it is only this society that is genuinely able to influence the direction of surgery at the highest levels due to our broad global membership and commitment. In this light it is our plan to further develop our advocacy role at the highest levels and also to work towards helping surgeons throughout the world especially through education in the ‘art and science of surgery’. So what can you do to help the Society fulfil our mission of furthering the art and science of surgery worldwide? 1. It would be a good start if everyone paid their dues. Over the last couple of years only about 2/3rds of our members pay their dues. This makes the Society finances extremely tight and prevents us from expanding our mission. We have reviewed our fees and hope to be able to have a new fee structure for next year. 2. Make plans to come to the World Congress of Surgery in Krakow next year. We aim to have our biggest and best Congress ever. The Polish surgeons
have cancelled their own meeting and are combing with us and their involvement will add a great deal both in terms of numbers but also in their breadth of experience and history. 3. The ISS/SIC is open for business. If your local or regional Society would like to partner with us then we would like to talk to you about how we can work together. We are interested in contributing to surgical meetings/congresses, postgraduate symposia or workshops or to contribute to skills courses. The ISS/ SIC doesn’t want to tell you how we will contribute. We want you to tell us how we can help. We have many members from top institutions around the world who are keen to help in these sorts of ways. 4. If you are able, then donate to the ISS Foundation. We need money to fulfil our mission through bringing surgeons from Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) to our Congress and to fund Surgeons from Higher Income Countries to be involved in Educational activities in LMIC. You could perhaps fund a named ‘traveller’ from a LMIC or
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help to fund a team to visit or contribute to education in a LMIC. It would also be possible to set up a named scholarship to enable surgeons from LMIC to come to the World Congress for many years to come. And general contributions to the ISSF enable us to build a Corpus to fund future activities through interest accrued.
7. Consider joining one of our Collective Member Societies. ASAP, for example, is especially designed for those with an interest in Global Surgery and Anaesthesia. We have specialised societies also with interests in Endocrine, Breast, GI Surgery, Trauma and Nutrition and Metabolism. They all welcome new members and are cheap to join.
5. Talk to your National Delegate or Representative about how you can be involved with your local chapter. Or talk to the ISS/SIC about becoming a National Delegate or Representative for your country.
8. Talk to your National Delegate and seek to be nominated to our ‘Travellers Programme’ to be funded to the World Congress next year in Krakow. Talk to your friends and get them to join.
6. Contribute to our Journal, the World Journal of Surgery. The Journal has a history of publishing articles from all over the world.
association. It is a privilege to be a part of and I look forward to many more of you stepping up to be involved and don’t forget to register for the World Congress in Krakow which promises to be the best and biggest ever. Andrew G. Hill President ISS/SIC
9. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and contribute to the conversation. The ISS/SIC is the world’s oldest and most prestigious international surgical
Report by the Secretary General Kenneth D. Boffard, Secretary General ISS/SIC
Our President, Andrew G. Hill has summarized the re-invigorated drives taking place in your Society. Efforts are advanced to emphasize work within resource constrained environments, as well as supporting humanitarian environments through our Societies such as IATSIC and ASAP. We are working with many organizations to further this aim and partnering with other bodies to run joint sessions at National Congresses. We look forward to a joint Plenary session with the College of Surgeon of Sri Lanka later this year, with others to follow. Our membership is our strength. We are represented in more countries, some with small membership numbers, some with large numbers of members, than
any other International Organization. We recognize that the Society has become quite expensive to join, and meetings expensive to attend. Your Executive Committee is taking several significant steps to reduce this burden, making access to the Society more affordable, and recruiting more widely. There is financial strength in numbers! Many of you who were at our Basel meeting will remember the strong presence of Medical Students and Trainees from all over the world. We welcome the International Association of Surgical Student Societies (IASSS), as part of our Society. IASSS will represent not only Medical Students, but also Surgeons in training. If we fail to encourage and mentor our next generation of surgeons, at every level of student and of mentor, then we are failing them, and ourselves. Planning for the Krakow Congress is well advanced (see the report from Adam Dziki elsewhere in the newsletter), and we have already started working on the 2021 Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Work is continuing development of the Academy, which will be our Educational arm. The Academy will coordinate and encourage efforts by our Collective Member Societies who already run, and will continue to run, significant educational initiatives, and react to other requests for the provision of appropriate courses, wherever those courses need to take place, partnering with local organizations wherever possible.
Mark Bowyer giving a lecture at APIMSF in Baku 2018
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To you, our members, I encourage you to write to us, be it through snail mail, email, our social media links, or other direct communication. Tell us where you feel we should go. What we can do to assist you, in your country? How can we assist with systems? How can we assist with integration of delivery of care? The International Society is an International, indeed Global, organization. What educational inputs do you feel appropriate for your sphere of medical care delivery? We promise to listen very carefully, and try to make a difference.
As I write this, I am in Baku at the 1st Azerbaijanian meeting held jointly between the International Surgical Society, and the Ambroise Paré International Military Forum, under its current President, Prof. Dr. Kenan Yusif-zade. This was a hugely successful joint venture, well hosted and efficiently run, with attendees from 22 Countries, and a wide opportunity to exchange ideas in the field of military surgery, and disaster medicine.
and we look forward to a joint session with the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka in August this year, as well as the ISS/SIC lecture at the American College of Surgeons in Boston in October. To our members in the Northern Hemisphere, we wish you a peaceful and happy midsummer. Kenneth D. Boffard Secretary General ISS/SIC
ISS/SIC continues to work with international surgeons and their organisations,
The APIMSF Congress 2018 in Baku, Azerbaijan
Report by the Chair Global Surgery Subcommittee Hisham Abdullah, Chair Global Surgery Subcommittee
ISS/SIC President Andrew Hill and I were both in Geneva in May. While Professor
Hill attended the G4 Alliance (http://www. theg4alliance.org) meeting I attended the World Health Assembly. This afternoon I had an exciting and inspiring discussion on behalf of the ISS/SIC and as chair of the Global Surgery Subcommittee. ISS/ SIC is collaborating and joining forces with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care in alignment with WHO’s “Health for all” agenda.
I had a great and fruitful discussion with Dr Walt Johnson and Dr Hernan Montenegro from the Department of Service Delivery & Safety (SDS)/Universal Health Coverage and Health Systems at the WHO. We agreed on the global framework to establish the required minimal standard for universal health coverage for Surgery and Anaesthesia, embracing digital technology, connecting the unconnected with
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mobile services, and harnessing creative ideas and innovations to improve the delivery of surgical and anaesthesia care particularly in low and middle income countries. The ISS/SIC and the WHO believe that it is time that we prioritised surgery and anaesthesia as an important component of public health. From the WHO data, 90% of deaths from injuries occur in low-and middle-income countries and yet the poorest third of the world’s population receives only 3.5% of the surgical operations undertaken worldwide. “Health for all“ should be the frontier of our partnerships and development efforts. ISS/SIC joins hands with the WHO and members states in championing universal health coverage, focusing on quality of surgical care and smarter partnerships for a safer and better healthcare. Hisham Abdullah Chair Global Surgery Subcommittee
Hisham Abdullah meets with Drs. Walt Johnson and Hernan Montenegro of WHO
Report by the General Treasurer Anders Bergenfelz, General Treasurer ISS/SIC
The economy of the ISS/SIC is good, although a problem is, as usual, the delay of payment of the annual dues. We encourage ISS/SIC members to pay their due for 2018 in a timely manner, since there is a
lot of administrative work involved in sending out reminders from the office (i.e., this work costs money for the ISS/SIC).
countries with corresponding overhaul of the membership fee structure for the ISS/ SIC.
There is currently good work being performed to optimize the budget for the WCS2019 in Krakow. We are confident that this will be to the benefit of the ISS/ SIC members with “more bang for the bucks”.
More news regarding this will follow during the year. Anders Bergenfelz Treasurer ISS/SIC
Further, there is an ongoing discussion about how to increase our membership, especially in the low and middle income
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International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) Collective Member Societies: IAES, IATSIC IASMEN BIS ISDS, ASAP
165 new members over 2017 1,958 active members 797 senior members 22 honorary members
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Honorary Members John Alexander-Williams United Kingdom, Victor Bertschi Switzerland, Alastair R. Brown Australia, Jorge Cervantes Mexico, Abe Fingerhut France, Felix Harder Switzerland, Yoshiki Hiki Japan, Masaki Kitajima Japan, Lasalle D. Leffall Jr. USA, Dorothea Liebermann-Meffert Germany, Alberto Montori Italy, José Felix Patiño Colombia, Arun Pausawasdi Thailand, Basil A. Pruitt Jr. USA, Thomas Reeve Australia, Thomas P. Rüedi Switzerland, Kerstin Sandelin Sweden, J. Rüdiger Siewert Germany, John Terblanche South Africa, Michael Trede Germany, Donald D. Trunkey USA, Tatsuo Yamakawa Japan
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Report by the LOC WCS 2019 Krakow, Poland Adam Dziki, President LOC WCS 2019
The Local Organizing Committee WCS 2019 comprises of 16 persons and two meetings have already taken place. Board Members of the Association of Polish Surgeons have decided that the forthcoming Congress of the Association of Polish Surgeons will be held together with the World Congress of Surgery (WCS) in
Krakow, Poland from the 11th to the 15th August 2019. During the Congress, the Association of Polish Surgeons General Assembly will also take place. Members of the APS have decided that there will not be any parallel sessions in Polish language. Polish surgeons would like to be equal partners of this Congress and are willing to be involved as speakers and co-chairmen. The ISS/SIC President Andrew G. Hill and Secretary General Kenneth D. Boffard visited Kraków in March, they have met with the LOC and visited potential venue locations. They were happy with the proposed venue and suggested places for
other events. Furthermore, I and two other members of LOC have met with the President of Krakow – Professor Majchrowski, who expressed his strong support for the Congress. It was established that a welcome desk for Congress members would be present at Kraków Airport to facilitate information regarding the transport to the hotels and venue. Also, all participants wearing the Congress Badge can use the city transport services at no expense and tourist materials detailing Kraków will be provided. Moreover, I have participated in the ISS/ SIC Executive Board Meeting in Zurich, held on 17.03.2018, where I discussed
The Main Auditorium at ICE Convention Center in Krakow
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present matters and proposed a future agenda. I have already met with the representatives of leading Polish event agencies, who are willing to help with Congress organization. I asked MCI to meet with those representatives in order to choose the most suitable agency that will work as the official subcontractor for this Congress. This meeting is preliminarily scheduled for the 11th of June 2018. With kind regards, Adam Dziki President LOC WCS 2019
Take a tour of Krakow in a horse-drawn carriage
The ICE Convention Center, Krakow
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Report by the Editor in Chief WJS Julie Ann Sosa Editor in Chief, WJS
Hello and greetings to all the members of the ISS/SIC… and hopefully all avid readers of the World Journal of Surgery. This is my first contribution to the newsletter, as I assumed the reigns of EIC from John Hunter on January 1, 2018. I’d like to thank Dr Hunter for his many years of faithful service and unflagging leadership; he continues to be an important mentor and counsel for the journal and for me in his new role as EIC, Emeritus. By way of introduction, I’m an endocrine surgeon now based on the West coast of the United States, having assumed the role of Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco-UCSF on April 1. I have served as associate editor of the WJS on behalf of the IAES for several years. This experience, combined with service on several other editorial boards and as associate/ deputy editor, will buoy me going forward.
I also will be counting on the strong support and experience of Laura Shearer Hunter, who will continue as managing editor, and Yvonne Chan, who continues as publisher of WJS on behalf of Springer. WJS has experienced a strong upswing in interest among authors around the globe based on the number of manuscript submissions that we receive. In 2016, the journal received 1771 new manuscripts; by 2017, the number had increased to 2255, representing a jump of 27%! China leads countries in the number of new submissions, followed by the United States, Japan, Italy, India, and the United Kingdom. There are many other ways to gauge interest and enthusiasm for WJS as a vehicle for providing the most innovative and influential science to surgeons and scientists around the globe. Usage statistics from SpringerLink demonstrated a significant jump in the number of full-text article requests and downloads between 2016 and 2017, from 522,137 to 662,676 (up 27%)! To assure the best science submitted ultimately appears in the print and on-line journal, we have assembled a terrific team of editorial board members and associate editors. Since the start of my tenure, three new associate editors have been appoint-
ed to serve WJS. Anthony Kim MD MS is Professor of Clinical Surgery and Director of the new Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). He assumed responsibility for vetting upper GI and cardiothoracic submissions from Dr Hunter in January. Sandra Wong MD is the William N. and Bessie Allyn Professor of Surgery as well as Chair of Surgery at Dartmouth Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Senior Vice President of the Surgical Service Line at Dartmouth Hitchcock. She is an internationally recognized surgical oncologist with expertise in melanoma, sarcoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma, and is assuming primary responsibility for the management of manuscripts focused in surgical oncology from Walter Marti of Basel, Switzerland. And, finally, Cheng Har Yip MBBS, former president of Breast Surgery International and an academic breast surgeon and consultant at Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care in Malaysia, will be the new WJS associate editor with responsibility for breast surgery submissions; she is following in the footsteps of Kerstin Sandelin of Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Yip is also the lead clinician for the cancer research program at Cancer Research Malaysia, which is a charity based cancer research organization, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Welcome Tony, Sandra, and Cheng Har; we look forward to your new ideas and energy! Drs Marti and Sandelin together served for more than two decades on the editorial board and as Associate Editors; their dedicated service and superlative judgment will be missed. Thank you Walter and Kerstin! This spring, we also are welcoming new members of the Editorial Board, providing additional international balance and diversity and increasing expertise in the arenas of global surgery, surgery in low- and middle-income countries, and pediatric surgery. We are excited to include Alain Chichom Mefire (Cameroon), DL Clarke (South Africa), Seraina Faes (Switzerland), Brian Lang (Hong Kong), Tim Pawlik (USA), Henry Rice (USA), Carmen Solorzano (USA), Daniel Steinemann
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Anthony Kim
(Switzerland), David Watters (Australia), and Sherry Wren (USA). For the journal going forward, we hope to increase its influence on the world stage as the vessel for the best science coming from members of the ISS/SIC to reach clinicians around the world. The WJS is uniquely positioned to fill a void around innovation and discovery that pertains to global surgery and its intersection with global health, as well as rural surgery and clinical practice and policy in low- and middle-income countries. In order to do this, we will work to attract more research in the fields of health services and health care delivery as well as implementation science. Our associate editor retreat this summer will coalesce our planning.
Sandra Wong
‘kinetic’ abstract, and other journals are now following suit. Thanks for your creativity, Hari and Mohammad! Finally, this year we will be developing our new relationship with the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society. Working together with Olle Ljungqvist of Sweden, we plan to assure that emerging ERAS guidelines are published in the WJS, along with commentaries regarding their interpretation and application. Another goal would
Cheng Har Yip
be to have WJS become a destination journal for more of the implementation science that is being produced around ERAS policies and their real world application. In summary, it is an exciting time for WJS, its authors and readers! There is much evidence-based change to come, with science promoted at WJS. Onward! Julie Ann Sosa Editor in Chief WJS
We are also working to increase influence via a larger presence on social media, and Twitter in particular. Our youngest social medial editors (Hari Keshava and Mohammad Ali Abbass are residents in the United States) have worked to develop a library of visual abstracts that correspond to the online publication of some of the most pivotal studies published in WJS, and recently they have developed the first ‘kinetic’ or ‘moving’ abstracts, which function like GIFs and permit a larger amount of information to be conveyed to readers. WJS was the first surgical journal to employ the
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International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) Collective Member Societies: IAES, IATSIC IASMEN BIS ISDS, ASAP
15,849 total cites (2016) 2,673 impact factor (2016) 2,922 5-year impact factor (2016)
World Journal of Surgery Impact Report 2017 662,676
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58 H5 index - WJS is ranked 9th in the Surgery Category
7,044 mentions including 129 news mentions
12 days from acceptance to online publication (2017)
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Julie Ann Sosa
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Report by the ISS-Foundation Michael G. Sarr, Secretary/Treasurer ISS Foundation
As the Secretary/Treasurer of the ISS Foundation, I again encourage you to visit our new website issfoundation-ISSF. org to see some of the highlights of the last World Congress of Surgery 2017 (WCS2017) as well as some new exciting
opportunities for members of the ISS/SIC on the near future! Obviously we are all awaiting the next WCS 2019 in Poland! Below I include just three of the 13 reports of the travelers for the WCS 2017 to showcase how important these opportunities are for our younger colleagues around the world. The ISSF was able to fund 13 travelers to come to the WCS 2017, but these young aggressive interested surgeons were also exposed to the Davos course on open and laparoscopic surgery of the abdomen immediately before the start of the formal meeting due to a very generous
grant to the ISS/SIC in memory of Dr Martin Allgรถwer. The ISSF hopes to be able to offer this course again in Poland next year as well as in the future World Congresses of Surgery put on by the ISS/ SIC. One can readily tell the writings of the travelers how potentially important these traveling scholarships are to these young surgeons interested in education and furthering the practice of surgery in their home countries.
My experience as ISS-F Travel Scholar at WCS 2017 Gigi Varghese, India
I had the privilege of being chosen as a travel scholar by the International Society of Surgery Foundation for the World Congress of Surgery 2017. Being my first international travel, I was excited about it from the very beginning and was looking forward to the 10 days I was planning to spend my time with the top academic surgeons from around the world and to meet a group of colleagues from various backgrounds of academic and surgical practice. We were soon informed about the venue for the welcome dinner, which was organized at Novotel at Basel and had a warm welcome to a gathering of fellow Travel Scholars along with the administrators of ISSF. It was indeed an eye opener for me to have interacted with surgeons all around the world. We talked about our culture, our practice as surgeons and quickly succeeded in making friends and
established cordial relationships. Soon I realized how different the practicing environments were in various other continents. I have been a practicing colorectal surgeon for 6 years now and extremely intrigued by the depth of culture and knowledge of fellow Travel Scholars. It also made me understand the difference in practice in various countries. We headed back to our respective rooms for an early head start the next day for the Davos GI Surgery Course for both open as well as laparoscopic approach. The course was carefully designed and well-structured to give us a comprehensive exposure to GI surgical techniques in toto. The most striking concept that hit me was the respect for time as demonstrated by the organizing team and how meticulously every exercise was planned. It was exhausting though and we completed the 2 days with enough time to interact with both the instructors as well as the support team present there. The presentation ceremony for the workshop thereafter gave us an opportunity to meet the administrators of the ISS/SIC and thereafter we headed for the Inauguration Ceremony. The next day we at-
tended the presentation of Travel Scholars along with the Presidential Address and Martin Allgรถwer lecture which was inspiring. Thereafter, a few of us attended the Free Paper presentation ISS/SIC and important aspects of trauma care. The next day I had put up the Abstract for WCS as a poster and had interaction with several delegates. I was particularly impressed by colleagues from Japan, who would otherwise walk around quite unassuming, but would be presenting Abstracts on some spectacular work back in Japan. I attended Free Papers in endocrine surgery and wrapped up the day. The final day began with meeting Dr. John Hunter and other colleagues and attended Lloyd Nyhus session for the best paper. I also attended the trauma session. Later on I attended Grey Turner lecture on Surgical Innovation followed by the General Assembly of ISS/SIC. I have reached back home with a wealth of experience and knowledge and a whole lot of friends, some of them would want to visit my department at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in India in the near future. Extremely thankful and god bless. Gigi Varghese
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Aman Arora, India
As an ISS/SIC Travel Scholar, at the outset, I thank the selection committee for having given me this opportunity. To be able to attend the Word Congress of Surgery at Basel, Switzerland was a true honor. The Davos GI course, with hands on experience on a number of laparoscopic and conventional surgeries, was a completely different experience. Individual attention to each participant with practical tips that help you bail out of a sticky situation, were greatly appreciated.
It also was a good platform to interact with professionals from other nations and discuss the varied surgical techniques being practiced in other parts of the world. Meeting the stalwarts of surgery, the likes of Prof Marco Patti, Prof Kenneth Boffard, and putting a face to the names we regularly encounter in our textbooks was an experience in itself. Enthusiasm of the Senior Faculty was contagious and made me realize that there’s no substitute to hard work and dedication.
overlap of Sessions. Presentations were very informative and to the point. The Congress also gave me an opportunity to interact with other Delegates and Senior Faculty who were forthcoming and helped me open doors for future prospects. Interaction with my fellow scholars, not just widened my horizons regarding good work being done but also highlighted the similar difficulties faced by surgeons everywhere, especially by those serving in austere environments.
From day 4 to day 6, Writers Workshop in the morning, before the start of Congress was also something which I enjoyed being a part of. It helped me allay my fear of writing and gave me an insight into the thought process of a reviewer. During the day, the Lectures were well distributed and care was taken to ensure minimal
Thank you once again for this great opportunity.
the morning of the 12th was very enlightening. The wet specimens were spectacular, the bowel mucosa looked like it would bleed any moment! It was an inspiring set up, certainly the result of flawless planning. Many of the laparoscopic and open practical sessions were a first for me (Billroth 1, Cholecystectomy, Intra and Extra-corporeal suturing and knotting). My table supervisor, Prof. Marti was amazing and patient. He gave invaluable practical tips and made me feel like I could achieve anything! Both days were awesome and the sessions ran seamlessly. The staff were very dedicated, and the Hands on Sessions were very beneficial. The variety of procedures also gave ample opportunity to learn new methods and approaches to various anastomotic challenges. The Course also presented an opportunity to discuss our different practices with new found friends. The Opening Ceremony that followed was humbling. There I was in the presence of Surgical Royalty!
Night which we were all graciously invited to (that was quite a view!), the Springer's Workshop (Melina was as wonderful as she is beautiful!) and all other meetings. I attended some insightful sessions of the WOFAPS. It was an absolute pleasure to meet many erudite authors and professors whose names I'd only ever seen in textbooks!
Aman Arora
My Basel Experience Oluwaseun Abiola Ladipo-Ajayi, Nigeria
I received the email about the ISS Travel Scholar Award with the highest excitement I have experienced in a long time. Still riding on that excitement, albeit seemingly surreal, I boarded a Zurich bound Emirates flight from Lagos, Nigeria at 5.55pm on the 9th of August. It was a 6 and half hour flight to Dubai, a 4 hour wait at the airport and then another 6 hour flight to Zurich. I arrived in Basel on the SBB around 3pm on the 10th to a warm welcome at the Ibis Budget Hotel. I barely slept that night in eager anticipation of the 6pm introductory dinner scheduled for the next day! I certainly felt very special as one of the three Paediatric surgeons amongst all the General surgeons in the gathering. I met Randy (United States) and Diem (Vietnam), a fellow Paediatric surgeon from Vietnam who I took to immediately! The Davos Course which commenced on
The session presentation of the Travel Scholars the next morning was an unforgettable experience. I felt like I would float as Prof. Sarr called me up the podium. I was as exhilarated as I was humbled. The rest of the Conference was also as interesting; The Martin AllgĂśwer Lecture, Basel
Let me reiterate what an awesome opportunity this has been for me and how grateful I am to the ISS Foundation for it. I had a great time, learnt so much and now have a renewed and re-invigorated confidence in myself and my career path. My interactions with fellow scholars and some of the Faculty has positively influenced my perceptions and practice. I have learnt new skills and techniques, acquired tips not published in books and forged new relationships. The ambience of the Conference has spurred me on to advance my career with renewed vigor. I feel like I am unstoppable! Well, even if this euphoria fizzles away, this I know. This award is the highest point of my career so far and the experience is undeniably the best I have ever had! Thank you ISS! Sincerely, Oluwaseun Abiola Ladipo-Ajayi
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So what is new for the ISSF? 1. With the addition of ASAP (The Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence) as a member society in the ISS/SIC, the travel awards are now open to anesthesiologists as well as surgeons after all we work together in the operating room and we need one another! We hope by member donations and other potential sources to increase the number of travelers again this next year! 2. The ISSF is supporting the outreach, in-country, educational programs of both BSI (Breast Surgery International) and the IAES (International Association of Endocrine Surgeons) for the years 2017 and 2018. Both of these fabulous organizations have been putting on outreach programs for several years now. Again, the ISSF is very interested in further funding and hope that member donations will increase to continue this important financial support. I encourage all of you to visit our website, and anyone with ideas of how to increase our financial support, please contact me directly. Michael G. Sarr Secretary/Treasurer of the ISSF Sarr.michael@mayo.edu
Mary Church, Krakow (ŠJan Mehlich)
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International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) Collective Member Societies: IAES, IATSIC IASMEN BIS ISDS, ASAP
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The ISS Foundation works closely with the International Society of Surgery to ensure that only the best surgeons are speaking at the World Congress of Surgery. Furthermore ensures the society best As the world has become “smaller ”, we all recognize the importance of education in the developing world, and especially so in the field of health care and surgery. The primary goal of the ISS Foundation is to help to educate surgeons in the developing world on new techniques, state-of-the-art ideas, and the ability to deliver these advances to their citizens.
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Experience by IASSS Students at WCS 2017 Sulé Burger, South Africa, Secretary General IASSS
In the founding statement of the ISS/SIC in 1902 one of the main intentions was that this Society would promote the scientific advancement and excellence of surgery. We believe that by investing in the next generation of young surgeons we are developing a set of world class surgeons who will help shine the light for surgical excellence into the next generation. The International Association of Student Surgical Societies IASSS had the honour of introducing 24 medical students and junior doctors to the world’s best surgeons at last year’s World Congress of Surgery in Basel. This was a watershed moment for many of these futures surgeons as they left with a renewed passion towards specialising in surgery. The young doctors functioned as “helping hands” during the week and were able to humbly serve their seniors while also being exposed to the most wonderful experiences. The Association of Academic Surgeons and the Davos Laparoscopic Course set the bar very high right from the beginning of the week by having the students observe a world famous Gastrointestinal Laparoscopic Course. We were delighted to see some of the students very familiar with laparoscopic skills and to also discover how some of them had hidden natural talents. The Association of Academic Surgeons encouraged the students to attend an Introduction to Academic Surgery and Leadership Course which was a favourite for many students and encouraged them towards a scientific career hoping to one day present their work at this Congress! Conference mornings started early with the World Journal of Surgery Writers Workshop and then students were allocated to each Lecture Venue where they
got to sit in on ground breaking talks and listen to debates on each topic. There were a few students who regarded themselves as good interviewers and offered to produce 12 Video Interviews with some of the speakers from the Conference which are currently available on the ISS/SIC and IASSS Social Media pages. This unique experience put our future surgeons in direct contact with the world’s best surgeons for a few precious moments to pick their brains, answer specific questions around a career in surgery and learn first hand what it takes to be a world class surgeon. Special highlights were the viewing of a private anatomy collection which houses items dating right back to the first study of the human body as well as swimming down the Rhine River during Spring celebrations. The students came from 10 countries and represented their individual surgical societies and interest groups in each country. The largest cohort of students was from South Africa, followed by Romania, Malaysia, the UK, Uganda, Greece, Ukraine, Belgium, Macedonia and Zimbabwe. The week together solidified long term friendships and has resulted in Collaborative
Research Initiatives being established, the intention to start a Young Surgeon Academic Journal, further development of Skills Teaching Workshops, Social Integration, understanding of Global Surgery and Exchange Opportunities. We would like to thank the ISS/SIC and the esteemed guests for a phenomenal week of growth and collaboration. We hope that all the delegates enjoyed interacting with the young surgeons as we are very thankful to the leadership of the ISS/ SIC for being so welcoming towards these future surgeons during the week. We look forward to hosting a few academic sessions to showcase some of the revolutionary work being done by young surgeons all around the world in Krakow in 2019. Sulé Burger Secretary General IASSS
View of the Market Place, Krakow
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Report by the ISS Administrative Office GDPR Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation, referred to simply as the “GDPR”, is a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council and is applicable from 25 May 2018. It concerns the protection of natural persons regarding the processing of personal data and on the free movement of this data. This regulation directly impacts how associations will collect, maintain and manage the data that is vital to their operations. The ISS/SIC Administrative Office and its suppliers have properly adapted their systems and software to comply with the new regulation.
WCS 2019 Arrangements We urgently recommend those of you planning to attend the World Congress of Surgery WCS 2019 in Krakow, 11.-15. August 2019 to make your travel arrangements at a very early stage in order to get your preferred flights and accommodation. Krakow is a lovely small City and
even though there is ample accommodation available, we will need to consider an overwhelming tourism during summer months. The Congress Registration Facilities should be ready by the end of August 2018 to accommodate your booking. The Scientific Program WCS 2019 is steadily taking more shape and we have planned to publish the details by the end of August 2018. Also the Abstract Submission System will be available by then. The deadline for the submission of Abstracts will be January 24, 2019.
Chair Scientific Subcommittee: Seigo Kitano, Japan Chair Social Media Subcommittee: Rowan Parks, United Kingdom With our best wishes to the ISS/SIC Members and readers. ISS/SIC Administrative Office
Subcommittee Chairs The Executive Committee has nominated the following Councillors to each chair a Sub-Committee: Chair Membership Subcommittee: Italo Braghetto, Chile Chair Global Surgery Subcommittee: Hisham Abdullah, Malaysia
Greetings from the ISS/SIC Administrative Office
Report by IAES Janice L. Pasieka, Secretary/Treasurer IAES
Gerard M. Doherty President IAES
The IAES executive continues to get ready for the IAES meeting in Kraków, Poland August 2019. We are indebted to our local arrangements chair Dr. Marcin Barczynski who has done an excellent job as our Local Arrangements Chair. We have two IAES headquarter hotels; the Hotel Stary and the Hotel Pod Róza, which are approximately a 20-minute, walk from the Congress Centre, in the heart of downtown Krakow. The gala dinner will be held on August 13 at the Wierzynek Restaurant which is located in the main square. The preliminary program of our IAES meeting is posted on the website at: https://www.iaes-endocrine-surgeons. com
Highlights include two State-of-the-Art lectures; one by Dr. Peter Stalberg on Small Bowel Neuroendocrine Tumors 110 Years Later and the second by Dr. Carrie Lubitz on Comparative Effectiveness of Thyroid Surgery. Along with our presidential address by Dr. Jerry Doherty on the Mastery of Endocrine Surgery, the Peter Heimann Lecture this year will be given by Dr. Megan Haymart an endocrinologist from the University of Michigan, on the Quality of Thyroid Cancer Care. Back by popular demand is the Eye-Opening video session, this year will be chaired by Dr. Barry Inabnet. We will be hosting a combined panel session with ASAP entitled "Endocrine Surgery Without The Bells And Whistles; A Reality Check To What Technology Is Funda-
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mental And What Is A Luxury." This will be moderated by Dr. Tobias Carling and will include Techniques of Thyroid Surgery Without The Robot Harmonic Ligasure by Dr. Hisham Abdullah, Parathyroidectomy Without The Utilization Of Intraoperative PTH by Dr. Meei Yeung and The Old Fashion Open Adrenal Surgery, both including Anterior Posterior Lateral Approaches by Dr. Barb Miller. A second panel session on “Surgeon Well-Being” will be moderated by Dr. Sally Carty and include sessions on Making the Diagnosis of Burnout, The Ergonomics of Surgery, Nurturing Our Mental and Physical Fitness and The Role That Departments and Institutions Play In Providing a Safe and Healthy Environment. Panelists include Doctors Cia Ihre-Lundgren, James Lee, Fréd Triponez and Sally Meade. The program committee will look forward to a wide variety of Abstracts that will fill the 40 Podium Presentations and the 70 Poster spots we will have at this meeting. We hope all of you will consider coming to
Poland and enjoying the camaraderie and friendship shared by all the international endocrine surgeons. Our INTEREST program continues to be very active. Recently Dr. Rob Parkin and Bo Wangberg returned to Vietnam to give an updated course on Thyroid / Parathyroid and Ultrasound Techniques to the group at the Hue Central Hospital. We are most grateful to have the ISS Foundation helping to sponsor our out-reach projects, as this will allow our INTERST program to reach out to many more.
The 17th Post Graduate Course in Endocrine Surgery, organized by Dr. Dimitrios Linos, will be held in Athens, Greece on May 31-June 2, 2018. For those interested in attending this worthwhile course and enjoying the great Greek hospitality, be sure to register soon. Please follow the link at: http://www.endocrinesurgery2018. com Janice L. Pasieka Secretary/Treasurer IAES
Under the leadership of Dr. Fausto Palazzo the Website Committee will be looking at revamping our website to make it more socially and user-friendly and meet the needs of our membership. If you have any suggestions or ideas going forward, do not hesitate to contact the office of the IAES. https://www.iaes-endocrine-surgeons. com
The Wawel Castle, Krakow
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Report by IATSIC Christine Gaarder, President IATSIC
To all trauma interested and responsible physicians – wherever you are! Join us in IATSIC, the largest multidisciplinary International Trauma Society, aiming at improving trauma care globally. IATSIC main goals have traditionally been communication, education, and advocacy. Trauma is teamwork. The critically injured patient requires and deserves the same quality of care wherever the injury takes place. Optimizing trauma care is challenging in every corner of the world, although challenges might differ. Our membership spans from countries with limited resources and lack of trauma systems to countries with increasing surgical sub specialization and work hour restrictions. We can learn from each other and we need your contribution in a growing network! Communication occurs mainly via our biannual meetings during the World Congress of Surgery (WCS), through articles published in the World Journal of Surgery, and through our website. We need input on how the website can be more useful to you as a member, and also on how you may contribute in increasing its availability as a social platform. Education is provided by IATSIC through the media mentioned above, and importantly, in the form of the National Trauma Management Course (NTMC) and Definitive Surgical Trauma Care (DSTC) courses. NTMC is currently offered in India, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and a few other countries around the world. DSTC is offered regularly throughout the world, with DSTC programs currently running in >30 countries, on all continents. The DSTC/DATC Committees are currently working on a revision, aiming at aligning
DSTC and DATC material into a format securing multidisciplinary approach. IATSIC is proud to count as members a large number of experienced trauma instructors globally, and we are looking at broadening the educational scope in order to be able to offer tailormade Trauma Training to different resource settings. Worth mentioning in this context is the increasing global and humanitarian focus that has resulted in the initiation of a formal cooperation with ICRC. We hope this can be extended to other organizations, and that IATSIC can become even more of an international hub for networking, competency building and support for trauma care globally. All the more important is the long-lasting cooperation between IATSIC and WHO. Major contributions were made by previous IATSIC presidents like Charlie Mock and Manjul Joshipura, and this effort in Global Policy-Making has to be continued. The last IATSIC Meeting was held in Basel in August 2017. The next WCS will take place in Krakow, Poland, in August 2019. These meetings cover the full spectrum of trauma and critical care with great speakers and lively discussions. In a busy and increasingly sub-specialized clinical schedule, we all have to prioritize between different scientific meetings. The critically injured patient needs you to be updated there and then. I encourage all of you to mark your calendars and plan to come to Krakow 11–15th August 2019. Please keep in mind that the Abstract Deadline for Free Papers is 24 January 2019.
the Program Committee, and will hopefully be able to provide some great talks to the always exciting AAST event. Hope to see you there! IATSIC members publish through the World Journal of Surgery. However, we think IATSIC should be more ambitious scientifically! We have the power to become a hub for Trauma Research in the future, and will explore possibilities for building the necessary infrastructure with the support of ISS/SIC. So why should you become a member? Or rather, why did I become a member? Trauma care is challenging, but also extremely rewarding. The critically injured patient is vulnerable, and needs your competence there and then. In order to keep up enthusiasm and dedication, belonging to a larger family is important. Meeting like-minded colleagues during courses or congresses equals recharging of batteries. Join the Familyđ&#x;˜ŠJ Please check the IATSIC website: www.iatsic.org/ regularly for the newest information on the IATSIC/ WCS meeting in 2019 as it becomes available. Christine Gaarder President IATSIC
While waiting for the Krakow event, IATSIC has organized a Guest Symposium during the European Congress for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ECTES) on 5–8th May, 2018 in Valencia, Spain. The Guest Symposium ‘Disaster Medicine and Preparedness’ has taken place on the Sunday 6th May. Also worth mentioning, the World Trauma Congress (WTC) is organized together with the AAST (American Association for the Surgery of Trauma) annual meeting September 25–29, in San Diego, US. IATSIC has provided input to
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Report by IASMEN Takashi Higashiguchi President IASMEN
I would like to offer a first official greeting as a president of IASMEN. Spring has come to us, yes, we are in the most pleasant season of the year. We’ve just lamented a flurry of falling cherry blossoms and started to feel a wind that blows through green leaves in early summer. In this cheerful and lively season, the Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) has made a big step forward in the field of Nutrition and Metabolism. GLIM was constituted as a core leadership committee with representatives of the global PEN Societies, ASPEN, ESPEN, FELANPE, PENSA, and JSPEN in 2016 It’s aimed for reaching global consensus on the Identification and Endorsement of Criteria for the Diagnosis of Malnutrition. It is essential for the development of the globally standardized nutritional care
which would dramatically improve the world health. We, medical professionals, should face up to the reality of more than 1 billion of the world’s population suffer malnutrition. Malnutrition is one of a serious global issue beyond each medical field. It was initially caused by poverty and starvation and been changing its form according to the aging of society. We should take consideration of current symbolic social health problems, such as obesity, cachexia, sarcopenia, and frailty. GLIM’s latest achievement will be broadly recognized in the world soon. IASMEN is a society of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism in the Field of Surgery. As all of us acknowledge that surgical patients’ nutritional condition directly affects their outcomes, this issue cannot be ignored in our Society. With the accelerating aging of surgical patients, age related malnutrition and sarcopenia is an imminent problem that we should take care for safe and beneficial surgical procedures. In this regard, scientific knowledge about nutrition and metabolism is indispensable in the surgical field. Compared to the Western countries, Japanese elderly is predisposed to malnutrition. Japan has been facing serious aging society and population decline ahead of the world. At present 40% of hospitalized seniors and 5–10% of seniors in
Outstanding night view of Japanese castle with cherry trees
the community suffer from malnutrition in Japan. Nutrition Support Teams (NSTs) have been actively contributing to nutrition management in most hospitals. Now, what we need is the community-based NSTs outside of hospitals. In this background, WAVES, Social Nutritional Education Program was born in 2014. It is an abbreviation of “We Are Very Educators for Society” and is composed of Medical and Welfare Volunteers. We literally ed-
GLIM published the results of discussion as ESPEN Guidelines on definitions and terminology of clinical nutrition on Clinical Nutrition, 2017
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ucate people in community face to face and propagate knowledge of malnutrition through the field program. 120 medical volunteers got together for social nutritional education for senior citizens. We took care of more than 300 local citizens here.
nated from the field of surgery. I deeply appreciate that IASMEN is considered a distinguished and erudite Society in the ISS/SIC. Let’s work together for further evolution of this academic society.
Takashi Higashiguchi President IASMEN
Then, people who learned from nutrition experts care for elderlies in their neighborhood. WAVES creates the cooperation between hospital and community, nutrition expert and general citizen for prevention and improvement of malnutrition for elderlies. Then, the circle of WAVES will grow throughout Japan for the eradication of malnutrition. Finally, nutrition and metabolism form fundamentals of human’s life and play an essential role for our biofunction. The recognition of its importance was origi-
WAVES field program at IZUMO-TAISH, Japanese sacred oldest shrine in Shimane prefecture.
Report by BSI Omar Youssef, President BSI
to follow it and to post any information or question as one of the board members will get back to you immediately. We have also renewed our website, with a new platform, but as you all know, the website as well as social media won’t be of value unless all of us communicate and surf it as much as we can.
to come. We had great events in India, Malaysia, Myanmar and many other countries. Stay tuned and check our FB page and website regularly because many of these events have got special registration fees for BSI members. This includes the next Breastanbul meeting in Istanbul and Melbourne International Joint Breast Congress later this year.
Dear BSI members, BSI has embarked its new journey to continue the efforts and to achieve its mission in the International Community of Breast Surgeons. A special thanks to the Immediate Past President, Professor Cheng Har Yip for her excellent job she did from 2015–2017. She has managed to keep the Society in a continuous active state and has lead a great work for BSI throughout different parts of the world. BSI has started its Social Media Activity via initiation of a Facebook page for BSI, all different activities and news will be posted on this page. We kindly ask you
Now, you can renew your membership through the website, follow latest news, see different announcements and have a direct contact with BSI Council Members via our webmaster, who is available 24/7 for you. Collaboration with Societies and Breast Cancer Conferences: We have successfully started active collaboration with different international and national societies, and we started to share with them their meetings. Please visit our website and our FB page to see these activities. We have shared in many conferences around the world and there is a lot more
Meantime, I encourage those of you who are leaders/executives in their National Societies to extend our collaboration with their Societies. Finally, I would like to assure you that all Board Members will do all what they can to run this Society and help you as much as they can. We wish that you also communicate with us and to play an active role in upgrading this Society. Your feedback is always very valuable for us and those who like to be active in all the above-mentioned activities are welcome. Omar Youssef President BSI
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Report by ISDS Hiroyuki Konno, President ISDS
Dear Friends and Colleagues, As the President of the International Society of Digestive Surgery, I formally invite you all to participate in the 48 th World Congress of Surgery in Krakow, Poland on 11-15 August 2019.
We are finalizing a very stimulating program. We will have a nice balance of State of the Art Lectures, topics pertinent to the community surgeons and sessions for Junior Faculty and Trainees. We will discuss cancer cases in the multidisciplinary format of a classic tumor board with experts from surgery, medical and radiation oncology. We will have several Free Paper Sessions and the traditional Grassi and Kitajima Prize Sessions. We have invited international experts from three continents and we will have a heavy presence from the Polish and Baltic surgical community.
This will be a fantastic chance to be exposed to new knowledge. In addition, it will offer excellent networking opportunity. Please plan to attend and register for this event once the site opens.
priorities and policies of the WHO. This year, ASAP is pleased to accompany ISS/ SIC President Andrew Hill who has been observing the G4 proceedings and the WHA activities. In addition, ASAP recently submitted comments to the WHO on the “Draft Declaration on Primary Health Care: Towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals”, stressing the importance of inclusion of language specifying the role of surgical and anesthetic care in achieving both.
Abstract submissions will be opened in May. ASAP’s Annual Meeting will also be held at this time. All are welcome!
See you all in Krakow, one of the most historic and beautiful cities in Poland. Hiroyuki Konno President ISDS
Report by ASAP Kathleen Casey, President ASAP
As the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence (ASAP) celebrates our 10 th anniversary, 2018 is shaping up to be a busy year! We welcome all the activities and opportunities it holds to improve the provision of surgical and anesthesia care around the world, particularly in regions with the greatest needs. In May, we’ll be attending a meeting of the G4 Alliance (Global Alliance for Surgery, Obstetrics, Trauma and Anesthesia), 90+ aligned organizations whose mission is to “advocate for the neglected surgical patient” in global health and development. The G4 meets each May in Geneva, in coordination with the major annual meeting of the World Health Organization. The 71st World Health Assembly took place May 21– 26, 2018, convening delegations from all 194 member states to determine the
In early October, ASAP’s 10 th Annual Meeting will be held in conjunction with the 10 th Annual Pediatric Global Health Conference at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Pennsylvania, US, themed “Innovate, Collaborate and Transform: Optimizing Education in Global Health.” Planned for October 4–6, 2018, this event will provide a mix of plenaries, interactive sessions, skills courses, and optional pre-conference educational seminars on a range of topics including education, research, capacity building, ethics and advocacy. More information on the agenda and registration will be available at https://chop.cloud-cme.com/ aph.aspx?P=5&EID=618.
In addition, we are pleased that ASAP has been invited to be a contributor to the global surgery portion of the agenda for the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) 19th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, December 5–7, 2018. The official theme of the conference is “Surgical Infections.” In addition, a significant portion of the agenda will be devoted to the presentation of Rwanda’s comprehensive National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plan (NSOAP). In support of this, meetings of the Rwandan Anesthesia and Obstetrics and Gynecology Societies will occur concurrently and be integrated with COSECSA’s meeting, with ASAP Council member Paulin Banguti, Rwandan Anesthesia Society President, playing a significant role. We’re also thrilled that ISS/SIC President Andrew Hill and World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists President Jannicke Mellin-Olsen have kindly accepted invitations to speak as part of the Global Surgery portion of the conference. We’d like to encourage wide participation
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from ISS/SIC. Please feel free to reach out for further information if you are interested in attending or to be considered as a speaker at this event. More information will be available at http://www.cosecsa.org/cosecsa2018-agm-scientific-conference. Lastly, planning is well underway for a fantastic ISS World Congress of Surgery meeting in Krakow Poland in August of
2019. We look forward to a rich collaboration across the Collective Member Societies of ISS/SIC, showcasing challenges faced in low and middle income countries in providing surgical and anesthesia care for often late presenting pathologies, as well as local innovations and successful programs that will provide inspiration and insights applicable to any surgical setting. As always, please spread the word about the value of ISS/SIC and ASAP member-
ship to your colleagues and friends. In addition, we greatly value the cross-pollination that occurs between ISS/SIC Collective Member Societies and ask that current ISS/SIC members consider joining the ranks of ASAP in addition to their own societies. We welcome your participation in this work. Kathleen Casey President ASAP
Medical societies By Antonio A.F. De Salles, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery and Radiation Therapy, Departments of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology, University of California Los Angeles, and Head & Founder, HCor Neuroscience, São Paulo. He is also President of the Ibero-Latin American Radiosurgery Society. Medical societies started to blossom in the early 1800’s. The aim was for their members to exchange knowledge and organise medical practice. Those were initially limited to countries, but, as science does not have frontiers, international societies soon began to burgeon as well, spreading scientific knowledge worldwide and initiating medical conventions. In general, national medical associations hold conventions yearly, while the international ones do so every two to four years, rotating in different regions of the world. The interval between meetings usually gives enough time to build a body of new information worthwhile for participants to come and justifying the investment of substantial resources. The profitable business of conventions was thus born, fostering networking and scientific progress. Besides showcasing the latest scientific discoveries, it then became necessary to promote the education of young doctors and regulate the expertise level of specialists. The educational boards of medical
specialties became managed by national societies. Specialised medical societies were born with the need of branching general medicine into specialties fostered by the fast medical progress made all through the 20th century.
A bit of history As medical societies were born and organised medicine progressed, humans experienced roughly the triplication in life expectancy. This improvement was witnessed in all continents, even in less wealthy areas of the world – a testament to the overall improvement of healthcare with the specialisation and the rapid dissemination of knowledge promoted by medical conventions and a well-organised medical sector worldwide. Today all medical specialties have their corresponding meetings, whose mission is the exchange of information, the education of young doctors and the dissemination of new therapies, whether medical, surgical or technological. At one point, pharmaceutical and medical device companies became major sponsors of medical conventions starting to play an important role in medical education. There were days when conventions were highly subsidised by private companies. The convention industry became profitable to all stakeholders – to the hosting cities through direct tourism benefits, to the delegates through education and to the companies that were hoping to in-
troduce their products to the market. It was also a major win for the patients who benefitted from the outstanding medical progress that was showcased at those conventions. While the dissemination of knowledge was dependent on the specialised press, the two- to four-year accumulation of knowledge justifying the holding of an international convention was reasonable, as the turnover of publications, be it medical journals with the need of peer review, or the production of textbooks, would take as much time to reach the reader. The presentation of the most recent findings in medicine was indeed dependent on conventions: the material presented at conventions would appear in the scientific press one to four years later; they would then be read by the scientific community at large, generating ideas, new discoveries and developments. This was a relatively long cycle in today’s standards!
Changing time frame The time frame to spread knowledge has changed with the digital age. Today knowledge is produced and disseminated at a speed that traditional conventions cannot follow. What will happen with the old convention model, which most of us know? Will conventions become digital? Is this already happening? Convention stakeholders, starting with the sponsors, are questioning the model based on expensive exhibition boots, placed in highly
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International Society of Surgery (ISS) Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC) Collective Member Societies: IAES, IATSIC IASMEN BIS ISDS, ASAP
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priced spaces. Additionally, lavish and expensive trips offered by exhibitors to attending doctors are no longer viewed as appropriate. As major device companies initiated, isn’t it less costly and more effective to bring doctors to be educated in their headquarters, where the demonstration of products is at hand and practical? Compliance, a synonym for private corporations not being able to take up the expenses of conventions, is being dutifully enforced by government agencies. Will this regulation of doctors’ participation in conventions limit their attendance (or is it already doing so?), therefore slowing down the dissemination of science, which is so important for the evolution of medicine and patient care? Medical societies are already trying to overcome these barriers by promoting more and more digital education. The webinar industry is rapidly growing, as are free online journals, medical and surgery technique videos on YouTube, providing free learning to doctors, as well as advertisement opportunities to medical device and pharmaceutical companies. This easy access to medical education is bringing medicine to a point where
patients are as much – if not more! – informed about their own disease than the doctors who treat them. Does this information, which lays at everybody’s fingertips, as well the easiness of communication among peers yielded by the digital age, threaten conventions? Or is the need for direct human contact and networking strong enough to maintain its model? These are questions that will be answered in the following decades as digital education evolves.
tors attending conventions in an environment where heavy taxes, profit-oriented health insurance companies, expensive drugs and medical devices, and failure of some governments to provide an effective healthcare system all have an impact on medical income in general. It becomes unaffordable for some doctors to participate in conventions, especially as there are so many potentially, of interest to them. Those are the very practitioners who will likely to embrace digital education.
The survival of international medical societies depends on their members. It is no longer enough to organise a convention every two to four years. Members and delegates need more pampering to accept registration fees, mostly because the information they seek can often be found outside the association itself. Continuous medical education, credentialing process, local courses, frequent webinars, access to libraries, forums directly helping in difficult medical cases are a few measures that can justify the enrolment and the retention of members, engaging them to participate in future conventions.
It is possible that doctors’ participation to conventions will decrease, and so their expertise and, in turn, the quality of their care. Medical societies have to evolve with the digital age, enhancing their presence in the day-to-day life of their members, partnering with other related societies in a kind of multidisciplinary effort to decrease the number of conventions.
The remaining question is who will continue to pay for the costs related to doc-
References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ British_Medical_ Association#History / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Medical_ Association / our worldindata. org/health-meta / ourworldindata.org/ life-expectancy / Br Med J. 1936 Feb 29; 1(3921): 431. The History of the French Medical Association
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SURGERY Administrative Office (ISS/SIC) Seefeldstrasse 88 CH-8008 Zurich Switzerland Phone: +41 44 533 76 50 Fax: +41 44 533 76 59 E-Mail: surgery@iss-sic.com Web: www.iss-sic.com
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Deadline for Abstract submission: 24 January 2019
International Society of Surgery / SociĂŠtĂŠ Internationale de Chirurgie (ISS/SIC) and its Collective Member Societies: 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 Mai 2018 ISDS - International Society for Digestive Surgery ASAP - Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence
SAVE THE DATE #WCS2019 www.wcs2019.org
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