I am honored to serve as the 43rd President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). SAGES is uniquely blessed to be a collaborative community of surgeons, candidate, affiliate, active and international members, who care deeply about surgery to improve and advance patient care.
As an active member since 1998, I have witnessed the impact of SAGES as an innovation and education surgical society. SAGES core mission is innovation, education, and collaboration. From flexible endoscopy to laparoscopic surgery to robotic-assisted surgery to endoluminal surgery, SAGES has been advocating for patients and surgeons, and providing education in emerging and state-of-the art technologies.
Digital surgery, the computer interface between the surgeon and a patient, is a rapidly developing and disruptive innovation in surgical care. A recent SAGES/EAES publication (Surgical Endoscopy 2024 38:475–487) describes the digital surgery paradigm to improve surgical access, bring transparency to the operating room, disrupt conventional methods of surgical education, and create a global framework for surgical evolution with the fundamental goal to improve the quality of surgical care.
SAGES is already reimagining the future of surgery by appointing a Digital Surgery Council to develop a collaborative strategic plan aligning the Artificial Intelligence, Surgical Data Science, and Robotics Committees and new Telepresence and Advanced Visualization Task Forces. There is a convergence of these technologies and data collected throughout a patient’s journey that is building a new healthcare ecosystem. SAGES is positioning itself to be at the forefront of influencing the digital surgery ecosystem. I look forward to sharing the Digital Surgery Strategic Plan in the near future.
SAGES Stories Ep. 31 – Brent Matthews, MD