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A Message from SAGES President Dr. Christopher Schlachta

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President’s Messages December 2024

On November 15, the SAGES Board, industry partners, and aspiring leaders descended upon New Orleans for mid-term board meeting and strategic planning retreat. The retreat focused on the Lead Up initiative and ways in which SAGES can support our membership in learning how to have a voice that is heard by industry, regulators, payors, and institutional leaders. With the assistance of Dr. Sherif Ebrahim, of the Freeman School of Business, Tulane University and Chair of the Strategic Management Group, retreat participants dove deep into the challenges we surgeons face, in advocating for our patients and practice, the required solutions, and actionable initiatives that SAGES can undertake. SAGES Lead Up task force chair Ross Goldberg, along with co-chairs Leena Khaitan and Paresh Shah, and their enthusiastic task force, will be digesting a wealth of information, instruction, inferences, and interpretations to bring impactful SAGES products to support our members. We will hear more about their progress in Long Beach.

At the mid-term Board meeting, we heard from thirty-one of our committees and task forces. Highlights of the meeting included the first reports from Andrew Wright for our new Ergonomics taskforce, Gordon Wisbach for our new Space Surgery taskforce, and Matthew Ritter for our new Video Based Assessment (VBA) taskforce. We heard from Linda Zhang that SAGES Global Affairs, in collaboration with the College of Surgeons of East, Central and South Africa (COSECSA), is now offering GLAP and FLS in Africa.

While SAGES continues to support our residents and fellows this year with our flexible endoscopy, robotics, and career development workshops, we offered our 35th Canadian resident workshop at CSTAR, and with Stryker’s support our very first fellows’ workshop on fluorescence guided surgery at UCSD.

On December 9th, we received word that SAGES was awarded ACCME re-accreditation with commendation. Congratulation to Drs. Caroline Reinke and Nabil Tariq, and Erin Schwarz for their hard work in bringing about this outstanding result.

With more than 1700 abstracts submitted, we are reminded that as a leading innovation society many of the cutting-edge presentations at our annual meeting do not carry sufficient evidence to qualify for publication in Surgical Endoscopy. Together with the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) we are thrilled to have contracted with Springer to soon be able to capture those early scientific advancements in a new open access journal called Innovative Surgical Trends. More details will follow in the new year.

On a somber note, this year we mourn the passing of Dr. George Berci and Professor Jacques Périssat, two visionary pioneers in endoscopic surgery and tireless patient advocates. Their spirit lives on in the activities of SAGES, EAES, and the global societies of endoscopic surgery.

Accordingly, for innovators and early adopters looking to hear what is too new for CME, the 6th Next Big Thing Innovation Weekend will occur January 23-25 in Houston, TX. This will include the annual NOSCAR and Surgical Disruptive Technology Symposium, and the semi-final of the Shark Tank competition.

Finally, a reminder that I hope to see you all at the 2025 SAGES annual meeting in Long Beach, CA March 12-15. Program Chairs Anne Lidor and Michael Ujiki have assembled an outstanding program to meet all of your gastrointestinal surgery innovation and education needs. Together we will make this the biggest and best SAGES yet!

If that wasn’t enough, as an added bonus this year, the legendary SAGES Sing-off will evolve into SAGES Got Talent. We are calling for audition videos that demonstrate your SAGES spirit. If you have ever wondered how you could get on that stage, this is your opportunity. Show us your love for what makes SAGES great.

As the year end approaches, let me take this opportunity to wish a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzza, cheerful holiday, and happy New Year to you all. I am looking forward to continuing the hard work and excitement with you in the new year.

With gratitude,

Christopher Schlachta

A Message from SAGES President Christopher Schlachta, MD – Summer 2024

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No one rocks Cleveland like SAGES!

Another spring and another fantastic SAGES meeting. Program chairs Drs. Marylise Boutros, Caitlin Halbert and Eric Pauli continued our string of amazing, content-rich, annual conventions. When 2,500 attendees descend upon a SAGES meeting, they expect to see the highest quality, patient-centered educational content, aligned with the leading edge of surgical innovation. We delivered the latest on the entire gastrointestinal tract—from esophagus to rectum, solid organ, and abdominal wall, across six concurrent rooms for one of our grandest offerings yet. We covered robotics to magnets, and sustainability to global outreach. We embraced patient engagement by inviting those who have lived the journey of surgical care to participate as faculty. We expanded our innovation pipeline by introducing our early innovators program. Our Gerald Marks lecturer, Professor Holst, walked us through the incredible journey of discovery of gut regulatory peptides and the profound impact the resulting pharmaceuticals are having on our practices. As our Karl Storz lecturer, Dr. Andrea MacNeill made a compelling call to action on behalf of planetary health and the urgent need to embrace the environmental impact of our profession. Our President, Dr. Patricia Sylla, provided personal and courageous stories of triumph over adversity, inspiring us to remain vigilant toward systemic biases in the healthcare system. To wrap it all up, we owned the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the Friday night main event.

As I unpretentiously accept the honour of serving SAGES for the coming year, I plan to focus my presidency on the most important asset that we hold together as a society: our members. SAGES membership crested 7,500 in the last year with more than 10% directly serving the society through dedicated participation in our 45 committees and task forces. SAGES committees cover a wide range of clinical expertise, practice settings, education initiatives, fundamentals programs, and technologies from artificial intelligence to space surgery. For the practicing gastrointestinal surgeon, SAGES is truly your home.

Despite our accomplishments, I have heard repeatedly from fellow surgeons, within SAGES and those missing out, that they feel increasingly marginalized by the growing complexities of the healthcare system. When they wish to address advances in technology, sustainability, equity, and diversity, or updates in best practice, they simply do not have a voice. This year we are going to begin reversing that quandary through a new SAGES initiative, LEAD UP. Our LEAD UP team will take a multi-pronged approach to providing SAGES members with the knowledge and skills (dare I say attitude) that they need to advocate for their patients and their profession and to be heard. It is a tall order, but a novel, pressing need. I am incredibly excited to empower our LEAD UP team and, in turn, our membership. We will keep you current on this process as it unfolds.

In addition, as our profession becomes increasingly driven by technology, the interaction between human and machine must continue to be carefully engineered and nurtured to protect our physical and mental capacities. In the coming year, we are going to dive deeply back into the importance of surgical ergonomics.

It is a genuinely remarkable privilege to be tasked with leadership of this society, which has been an inspiration throughout my entire professional career. I look eagerly toward working with each one of you to liberate your creativity and cultivate extraordinary opportunities. Let us continue to innovate, educate, and collaborate to improve patient care.

With gratitude,

Christopher Schlachta, MD

 

A Message from SAGES President Dr. Pat Sylla – Spring 2024

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This message marks the official countdown to our SAGES meeting in Cleveland! It is hard to believe that in less than a month, we will be shuffling through the bustling halls of the convention center, catching up with old friends, and exchanging clinical narratives of success and challenges with the common goal of fostering learning and elevating patient care. Our program chairs, Drs. Marylise Boutros, Caitlin Halbert and Eric Pauli have put together an extraordinary program, packed with practice-enriching, innovative and patient-centered content.

This year’s program will be groundbreaking. Across five sessions on the topics of postoperative recovery, access to bariatric care, management of hernias, gastroparesis, and colorectal anastomotic leaks, patients will serve as faculty and share their unique experience. Please join me in warmly welcoming them to SAGES. This year’s program will also engage all of us in a discussion about the environmental impact of our MIS practice. Our Friday program will include several sessions with expert content and practical tips to guide us through the process of making our ORs and surgical practices more sustainable.

There will also be no shortage of fun activities throughout the meeting. Brilliantly coordinated by our program chairs and RPS Task Force volunteers, come partake in some wellness get-togethers. Take advantage of Camp SAGES Childcare while space is still available. Be ready for another memorable SAGES event that will also feature an unprecedented number of new robotic and other new technologies in our exhibit hall. Don’t forget to register! Online registration closes on April 8.

As I enter the last month of my Presidency, I reflect on how privileged I have been to witness the magnitude and impact of the work accomplished by our 41 committees and task forces to serve our 7,282 members. This past year marks several important organizational milestones and has prompted new initiatives based on deep reflection about current and future strategic priorities. I am most proud of our continued commitment to address and confront sustainability in surgical practice (SSP), and the work accomplished by our joint SAGES and EAES SSP task force. When we asked you last fall to complete a survey addressing your knowledge gaps, attitudes, interests, and involvement in sustainability, a record-breaking 1,024 members and non-members answered the call through our various social media platforms. Your responses, along with an in-depth literature review, have served as a roadmap to draft a call for action by our Societies to educate and disseminate best practices to promote environmental sustainability.

Along the same theme and in response to current and future fiscal threats, the SAGES leadership retreat held in November 2023 addressed how to sustain the continued growth of our educational programs. From streamlining workflow to consolidating activities, our young leaders identified solutions for how SAGES could sustain its educational goals through strategic partnerships, collaborations, and alternative sources of funding. The group also explored another emerging priority, namely how SAGES can engage with patients and patient advocacy groups to enrich and broaden the reach and impact of our educational products. A new Patient Engagement Task Force was created, charged with developing a process to engage effectively with patients to ensure that our clinical recommendations, guidelines, and other products are inclusive of the diverse patient perspective and align with the principles of shared decision making.

Throughout the year, I have watched with pride the dedication of our SAGES Fundamentals, Education Council and RAFT committees responding to our members’ evolving educational needs by strengthening existing testing and training programs, adapting content and delivery to increase relevance and access to a more global audience, and developing new platforms better suited for video-based learning and assessment. FLS will be launching a new, specialty agnostic MCQ exam as part of the revised FLS exam in the next few weeks. As we celebrate 10 years of the FES program serving as a competency benchmark in GI Endoscopy for General Surgery residents across the U.S., FES is now embarking on translating their didactics into Spanish. FUSE has also initiated an update of the online curriculum that will incorporate new topics including robotic energy and new device considerations. As part of SAGES global outreach, a 2-day FUSE Simulation Curriculum will be launched in India in June 2024.

And after several years of tireless efforts and pooled expertise from the Ed Council Curriculum and Development Groups, Continuing Ed Committee and Ed Resources, and with the invaluable contributions from our subject matter experts from the relevant specialties, SAGES will launch 4 online educational modules focused on core competency procedures in Bariatric (sleeve gastrectomy), Biliary (lap cholecystectomy), Colorectal (right colectomy for cancer) and Foregut (fundoplication) in mid-April, just in time for our Annual meeting! The interactive e-learning modules, which are part of the SAGES Masters Program curriculum, are populated with rich content from the SAGES video library, expert teaching and MCQ assessments. We will be seeking feedback on these modules from surgeons nearing the end of training to help inform our future e-learning efforts, including better understanding educational needs and desirable features.

Meanwhile, the SAGES video-based assessment tools, intended to assess procedural competency, are progressing well. The laparoscopic fundoplication VBA tool is now complete, and the Ed Council Assessment and Evaluation group has developed the scoring rubric for the laparoscopic cholecystectomy VBA. They are now developing their rater training program. Our RAFT committee is one of the most vibrant and active committees and their contributions to elevating our trainees’ education is nothing short of extraordinary. In addition to launching SAGES Oral Exam Preparation Courses in support of our residents, they also hosted the first Fellows Career Development course under the SAGES brand this past fall. The RAFT resident webinars remain widely popular, attended and/or viewed by thousands of trainees worldwide, with 3 more courses scheduled through June 2024. Lastly, at the Fellowship Council’s request, SAGES RAFT will co-sponsor the advanced colorectal fellowship programs, in partnership with SSAT. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome colorectal fellows into our fold.

The SAGES Guidelines Committee has concluded the year with the successful recruitment of a new Guidelines fellow and the publication and nearing-publication of 6 guidelines and/or meta-analyses on the topics of appendicitis, laparoscopy during pregnancy, peritoneal dialysis, treatment of colorectal liver metastases, and inclusion of a health equity focus in the development of SAGES guidelines. Two additional documents are under review on the topics of appendicitis and management recurrent hiatal hernia. Given the rigorous evidence-based process involved in Guideline development, which typically takes about one year to complete, we want to ensure that they address your perceived gaps in guidance in clinical practice. Therefore, we will ask you to complete a brief survey to highlight your topics of interest for future SAGES Guidelines development. Please take 5 minutes or less to complete so our efforts and resources can be re-directed towards topics that you have identified as high priority.

Following a successful launch of Global Laparoscopic Advancement Program (GLAP) training in Namibia in early 2023, which marked GLAP entry in Africa, our Global Affairs Committee launched a condensed 3-day GLAP course at the COSECSA annual meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this past December, where 53 surgeons underwent laparoscopic simulation training. In addition, Global piloted a feasibility trial for remote FLS testing and scoring. Global is now refining a GLAP Pro training program that incorporates completion of an expanded online FLS curriculum, tutorial on how to build a low-cost simulator to practice FLS skills, followed by on-site hands-on simulation training in FLS skills with FLS coaching. A proposal to evaluate the impact of GLAP Pro on FLS test passing rates among 45 COSECSA trainees from 3 sub-Saharan African countries, was awarded a 2024 SAGES Research Grant. This study will also serve to validate remote FLS testing and scoring and facilitate expansion of FLS testing across Africa. Meanwhile, both on-site and virtual GLAP courses are planned in Costa Rica, Guadalajara, Monterrey and El Salvador, ran by local GLAP-trained faculty. Most of the GLAP team is led by SAGES volunteers with a passion for education and supported by the SAGES Education and Research Foundation, and a prior grant from Dr. Pon Satitpunwaycha. SAGES efforts to scale laparoscopic skills training in Africa and South America are directly proportional to the support received from our members. Please consider a targeted donation towards GLAP at https://www.sagesfoundation.org/donate-now/one-time-gift/ and scroll down to Giving Plus.

We are pleased to announce the official launch of the SAGES Research Network Database, an initiative led by our Research Committee to build a diverse research ecosystem within SAGES that also provides the opportunity for our members interested in participating in investigator-initiated and/or sponsored clinical trials, to be matched as a trial site, based on location, practice type, investigator, clinical and research profile. Since launching in February 2024, the RDN has received 61 submissions, with a target of 100 site applications by the time of the Cleveland meeting. Please enter your institution as a potential research site. The Research Committee has also completed their grant review cycle with a record 60 research applications, 11 career development awards, and 54 medical student research award applications received this year! This is nearly double the number of applications from 2 years ago. Our organization takes no greater pride than to support innovative and impactful research and to empower talented future leaders.

Fresh off the press! The SAGES CVS challenge proposal was officially accepted as an in-person event at MICCAI in October 2024! This project has been led by the SAGES AI task force, in collaboration with industry partners and academic institutions. An astounding 1,488 videos were submitted by surgeons from 57 countries in support of this challenge, and we thank each and every one of you who has shared videos and contributed to the success of this groundbreaking computer vision challenge. This is the first time a surgical society has ever participated in a project to leverage AI-driven intraoperative assistance for enhancing surgical safety. The challenge will officially be launched at our Annual Meeting, when the first batch of 250 fully annotated videos will be released to the public! After all 1,000 annotated videos have been released, prizes will be awarded to the winners at MICCAI. Through this important initiative, SAGES has developed the blueprint for developing a video annotation training curriculum that will facilitate participation in other computer vision projects.

SAGES continues to innovate and bring our members the latest and most exciting new technologies and techniques in our fields through specialty meetings, and you can read more about the 2024 NBT Innovation Weekend at https://www.sages.org/2024-nbt-innovation-weekend-report/.

As I wrap up my Presidency and present this last report, I reflect on how much SAGES has grown and evolved since its difficult and contentious birth out of a group of passionate innovators with a vision of advancing surgical care through endoscopy. Four decades later, after building a massive footprint in surgical education, MIS and endoscopy skills training, our organization hasn’t stopped innovating, pivoting, and challenging itself relentlessly to deliver better, more efficiently, globally, equitably, safely, and sustainably. I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to the rich fabric of SAGES and to help shape the future of our organization. I look forward to seeing you and hearing from all of you in Cleveland.

Sincerely,

Your President

Pat Sylla

A Message from SAGES President Dr. Patricia Sylla – Fall 2023

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As we wrap up an eventful summer of 2023, we take a moment to stand in solidarity with colleagues, patients and the communities devastated by recent fires, earthquakes, and catastrophic floods across the world. The loss of life and unimaginable grief have challenged us to reflect more urgently on the role we must play in curbing the impact of our activities on the global climate crisis.

As a surgical organization, SAGES has acknowledged the direct environmental impact of the healthcare sector and specifically of minimally invasive and endoscopic practices [1]. SAGES has pledged to educate and disseminate best practices and collaborate with other stakeholders including industry partners in global efforts to reduce the surgical footprint on the environment [1]. We have joined forces with EAES to organize a Sustainability in Surgical Practice (SSP) taskforce that includes 36 members passionate about sustainability. SAGES recently joined the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and will continue to build strong partnerships and expertise in this space, as reflected in the 2024 SAGES Annual Meeting featuring inaugural sessions focused on SSP. You will soon be asked to complete a 5-minute survey that will help us focus efforts on empowering surgeons through education, collaborative actions and initiatives in promoting sustainable practices. We urge you to complete it so we better understand your interests, local resources and concerns. We want to hear from students, trainees, and surgeons across all levels of leadership and diversity of practice.

Our SAGES committees have been actively preparing to launch other important initiatives, programing and curricula. Please join me in congratulating the SAGES Global Affairs Committee for kicking off the Global Laparoscopic Advancement Program (GLAP) training in Ondangwa, Namibia just a few weeks ago, which is the first official site of SAGES Go Global in Africa. The virtual GLAP programming will continue in Guadalajara, Mexico and Costa Rica, with plans to expand to El Salvador. The Global and Safe Chole Committees are teaming up to pilot Safe Chole Virtual Modules in Costa Rica. In collaboration with the Fundamentals leadership, the Global Committee is also working to bring FLS certification to LMIC locations via GAC/GLAP programming. Much of the work by the GLAP team is led by volunteers like you, practicing surgeons and trainees who have a passion for educating, and has been supported by the SAGES Research and Education Foundation and a prior generous grant from one of our members, Dr. Pon Satitpunwaycha. Donations from external sponsors and members like you can help scale up GLAP outreach and impact to even more underserved regions of the world – www.sagesfoundation.org.

In keeping with creating meaningful SAGES educational offerings for our members, the QOS Committee just launched a free OpiVoidTM course that meets the new DEA requirement for clinicians seeking a new license or renewing an existing DEA prescriber license. The QOS Committee curated content from past conferences to create a free 8-hour CME activity that provides training on treating and managing patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. Log on to www.sages.org/login and then click “Access Organization Wide Learning System (OWLS)” to take advantage of this free resource that is relevant to your practice.

Our FLS Committee has also been hard at work developing more than 300 new MCQs mapped to a revised blueprint focused on a set of EPAs and OBs selected based on the results of a prior multi-specialty survey. Beta testing will soon begin to select questions to be included in the revised FLS exam. The committee developed the prototype for a new technical skill task that may be included in the revised FLS skills exam. The committee also plans to revamp the curricular content for the FLS program to provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date learning experience to better support competency goals for laparoscopic surgeons in training and in early practice.

In the not so distant future, trainees and practicing surgeons alike will also have the opportunity to submit surgical videos for comprehensive video based assessment (VBA) and feedback through a SAGES online platform! The Education Council and associated committees are developing several VBA initiatives. Following a rigorous process for validating its scoring methodology, the Lap Fundoplication VBA is now complete! The Lap Chole VBA has finalized a scoring rubric and is developing an asynchronous rater training module, and the Colorectal Committee is in the process of adapting the CAT framework for a Lap Right Colectomy VBA. To support the launch of VBA, the Surgical Data Science (SDS) task force led an RFP for developing a secure online platform that can support video upload, storage, review and rating by external raters, with added features such as coaching and data analytics, all intended to enable quality improvement initiatives. Several proposals by commercial vendors are currently under review with the goal of finalizing a formal partnership and launching the SAGES Foregut VBA.

We are proud to announce that in line with our mission to improve patient care, SAGES was recently granted recognition as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). As a PSO, SAGES can create a legally secure environment (conferring privilege and confidentiality) where clinicians and health care organizations can voluntarily report, aggregate, and analyze clinical data with the goal of improving the safety and quality of patient care. SAGES will leverage its PSO designation as we move towards developing multispecialty video-based repositories and clinical registries.

SAGES remains committed to fostering DEI and improving the quality and equity of surgical care across the diverse populations we serve. Our Diversity, Leadership and Professional Development (DLPD) Committee has developed the Fundamentals of Leadership Development (FLD) course that incorporates DEI training. The course was launched virtually and will be offered for the first time in-person on April 15, 2024, immediately preceding the SAGES meeting. This course that all SAGES Board Members are required to take will be accessible to all. The DLPD Committee is exploring strategies to expand access to the course both in-person and virtually.

Our Guidelines Committee was also tasked with re-evaluating its methodology for developing SAGES Guidelines and ensuring that review of the best published evidence of a clinical topic and subsequent strength of recommendations take into account the diversity, or lack thereof, in the patient groups included in relevant trials. To that effect, SAGES guidelines will incorporate a section at least recommending new areas of research, when diversity is lacking.

In order to address this gap in surgical trials, the Research Committee has developed an initiative to increase diversity in surgical trials, not only among participating trial sites and investigators, but also among patients enrolled. Stay tuned for the launch of the SAGES Research Network Database that will provide the opportunity for surgeons interested in participating in investigator-initiated and/or sponsored clinical trials, to be matched as an eligible trial site, based on site, investigator, clinical and research profile.

SAGES continues to innovate, explore and bring our members the latest and most exciting new technologies and techniques in our specialties through specialty meetings, our Annual Meeting and via social media. The SAGES 5th Annual Next Best Thing (NBT) Innovation weekend will be held February 22-24, 2024. The summit will feature the 17th annual NOSCAR meeting, the Surgical Disruptive Technology Summit (SDTS) meeting and a summit on Governance led by the SAGES AI Committee. Once again, the SAGES Shark Tank semi-finalists will pitch their proposals, with the finalists moving on to present at the SAGES Annual Meeting on April 18, 2024.

The SAGES Critical View of Safety (CVS) Challenge is a biomedical computer vision challenge launched by the SAGES AI Committee, aimed at developing clinically meaningful and effective solutions to assess the CVS during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The goal of this initiative is to generate a large and diverse and annotated dataset of lap chole videos and encourage researchers to compete in developing innovative AI algorithms for real-time intraoperative CVS detection. This groundbreaking project represents the first effort by a Surgical Society to leverage AI-driven intraoperative assistance for enhancing surgical safety, and has benefited from academic and industry collaborations and sponsorships. To date, nearly 825 videos from 55 countries have been uploaded and expert annotation is well underway. Upon reaching a target of 1,000 videos and finalizing the dataset, the CVS Challenge will be presented at the International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI). If accepted, the challenge will officially launch by March 2024. We invite surgeons worldwide to continue contributing to this landmark project that is poised to serve as a framework for future AI-based clinical challenges. Contribute to the challenge at www.cvschallenge.org.

Calling out new members! With 7,478 members to date, we remain committed to growing a diverse membership and engaging, supporting and providing value to our members. The Membership committee implemented several initiatives to recruit more next generation members and leaders, including facilitating the Candidate Membership application process, reducing the financial burden for trainees transitioning to practice by discounting the 1st year Active membership fee, and launching “Trainee Town Hall” and “Meet a Member” events at our annual meeting for medical students, residents and fellows to mingle with our members.

SAGES listens. Over the past few months, the QOS Committee surveyed our membership about the state of burnout in surgery, while the Reimagining the Practice of Surgery (RPS) task force inquired about factors important to surgeons in their professional well-being. The candid and detailed feedback received from as many as 600 of our members will help inform our Society on action plans and initiatives to better support surgeons in practice and in training. We look forward to strong participation at several wellness sessions and activities at our Annual Meeting.

Fresh off the Press! We are pleased to report a near record high number of abstract submissions for the SAGES 2024 meeting in Cleveland! Please Visit https://www.sages2024.org/ to view the Schedule at a Glance. Registration and housing will open later this Fall. Special thanks to Program Chairs Marylise Boutros, Caitlin Halbert and Eric Pauli for organizing a superb program centered around the theme of educating, innovating and collaborating for a sustainable future.

Lastly, I want to express my deepest thanks to the Executive Committee, Board, Committee Chairs and Co-Chairs, SAGES staff and more than 900 committee members for their efforts advancing SAGES’s mission while maintaining financial sustainability. We are particularly grateful to the SAGES Foundation for its ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Your President,
Pat Sylla

  1. Pietrabissa A, Sylla P. Green surgery: time to make a choice. Surg Endosc 2023;37(9):6609-6610.

A Message From SAGES President Dr. Patricia Sylla – Spring 2023

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We could not have hoped for a more energizing and meaningful reunion in Montreal. With 2,500 participants from around the globe, our auditoria, tech exhibits and hallways once again buzzed with delight as attendees reconnected with mentors, collaborators, colleagues and friends. Scientific abstracts and meeting sessions were masterfully coordinated along specialty tracks by our program chairs Dr. Stefanidis and Dr. Petersen and featured a diverse faculty of current and future leaders in surgery.

This year’s program also highlighted sessions on how to sustain the joy of surgical practice and transitioning (well) through the various phases of our careers. A strong focus on new technologies permeated the meeting with important themes woven into expert panel discussions including how to implement guidelines, achieve equitable care, and advocate against erosion in physician compensation. We celebrated President John Mellinger, who reminded us of the deep meaning of our profession, and how through SAGES, we can support others in leading change in their communities. Our first keynote speaker, Dr. Hachach-Haram, shared her vision of a future of digitally interconnected operating rooms that will expand access to better quality care, and how we should all prepare for change in our own ORs. Our 2nd keynote speaker, Dr. Govindarajan, reminded us of the power of reverse innovation, and the imperative of supporting low-cost high-impact solutions that have the potential to disrupt health care delivery on a global scale.

Looking ahead, I am incredibly excited about the future of our society and deeply honored to serve as your President for the coming year. SAGES is ideally positioned to lead as we enter an era where surgical data science will increasingly inform clinical workflows and best practices, and where rapid influx of new technologies and AI-based solutions will require clinical validation and training of our workforce to ensure safe adoption. SAGES will persevere in its commitment to advancing MIS surgical and endoscopic skill training and access to high-quality educational content through various platforms and collaborative partnerships.

SAGES is also dedicated to developing a framework for assessing and mitigating the environmental impact of our surgical practices, and to outlining strategies to achieve sustainable practices while providing the highest quality of care for all our patients. Many of you have already reached out and expressed strong interest in joining this effort, and I am so excited about what we can accomplish together. There is no greater honor and privilege than serving in this role, and I look forward to working with all of you in shaping the future of the most innovative and forward-thinking society in North America.

Message from the President

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It was truly wonderful to see many of you in Denver, and for those who couldn’t attend in person, you were missed! SAGES enters the year ahead coming off an outstanding meeting, not only because for many it was their first chance to see colleagues long missed, but also because of the outstanding program put together by Dr. Archana Ramaswamy and Dr. Jake Greenberg. Dr. Feldman’s presidential address was an incredible summation of what SAGES is about, and what your organization is accomplishing on so many fronts. 
As I sat and reflected on the brief summaries of projects and work product being generated from our more than 40 committees and task forces, carried out by over 800 committee members, I was again simply…blown away. Whether refining pacesetting Fundamentals educational products, launching a Masters Program and Organization-Wide Learning System, facilitating cutting edge research, producing industry-leading educational manuals, redefining the profession and exploring an offensive posture toward surgeon joy and wellness, providing an expanding array of career-development awards for emerging leaders in our field, or leaning into the promise and limitations of artificial intelligence and surgical data science as the foundation for professional refinements yet unseen (to name but a few), SAGES continues to deliver outstanding product, and to provide exceptional career development opportunities for those who represent the future of our profession. Through your collective efforts, SAGES continues to be one of the most dynamic and impactful drivers of education, quality, and innovative thinking in our profession.
To that point, if you are a member who is interested in serving on a committee and has not volunteered to do so, please use this link to let us know of your interest by April 30. The same link can be used by existing committee members to request a change. Our committees and their work, alongside the outstanding support of our BSC colleagues, continues to be the lifeblood of our Society. They also create opportunities to grow, network, and experience the welcoming community and vibrant work ethic that have characterized SAGES since its inception. If committee service is not something you can lean into at the present time, consider joining one of our ADOPT courses to add new skills with longitudinal expert support in your practice, or attend the upcoming Innovation Summit under Dr. Schlachta’s outstanding oversight to explore the cutting edge of surgery with a group of surgeons committed to helping shape it. If you are a trainee, take advantage of the outstanding webinars and courses offered through our RAFT committee. In short, I hope that however you choose to engage in SAGES, you know how much your presence and care mean to our Society, our profession, and our patients, and that we want you to find SAGES a home and a place where your professional needs are met in a community of learning that is working to hold itself accountable for inclusivity, equity, and diversity to the betterment of us all.
I personally am greatly humbled by the privilege of serving as your president for the coming year, and know that many of you deserve this opportunity more than I. I accordingly want to pledge to our membership, to you, my personal commitment to view the year ahead as a stewardship on all of your behalves, for the growth of each of you in any way we as a Society can contribute to, and ultimately for the well-being of the patients we are privileged to serve. You individually and collectively represent something truly amazing and special, from our resident and fellow members to our George Berci, who at 101 still is teaching us all how to teach and to innovate for the good of those whom we are called to care for.
I look forward to partnering you in this year of service!
Warmly,
John

A Message from SAGES President Dr. John Mellinger

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It was truly wonderful to see many of you in Denver, and for those who couldn’t attend in person, you were missed!  SAGES enters the year ahead coming off an outstanding meeting not only because for many it was their first chance to see colleagues long missed, but also because of the outstanding program put together by Dr. Archana Ramaswamy and Dr. Jake Greenberg.  Dr. Feldman’s presidential address was an incredible summation of what SAGES is about, and what your organization is accomplishing on so many fronts.  As I sat and reflected on the brief summaries of projects and work product being generated from our over 40 committees and task forces, carried out by over 800 committee members, I was again simply…blown away.  Whether refining pacesetting Fundamentals educational products, launching a Masters Program and Organization-Wide Learning System, facilitating cutting edge research, producing industry leading educational manuals, redefining the profession and exploring an offensive posture toward surgeon joy and wellness, providing an expanding array of career-development awards for emerging leaders in our field, or leaning into the promise and limitations of artificial intelligence and surgical data science as the foundation for professional refinements yet unseen (to name but a few), SAGES continues to deliver outstanding product, and to provide exceptional career development opportunities for those who represent the future of our profession. Through your collective efforts, SAGES continues to be one of the most dynamic and impactful drivers of education, quality, and innovative thinking in our profession.

To that point, if you are a member who is interested in serving on a committee and has not volunteered to do so, please use this link to let us know of your interest by April 30: https://www.sages.org/leadership/committees/volunteer/. The same link can be used by existing committee members to request a change. Our committees and their work, alongside the outstanding support of our BSC colleagues, continues to be the lifeblood of our Society. They also create opportunities to grow, network, and experience the welcoming community and vibrant work ethic that have characterized SAGES since its inception. If committee service is not something you can lean into at the present time, consider joining one of our ADOPT courses to add new skills with longitudinal expert support in your practice, or attend the upcoming Innovation Summit under Dr. Schlachta’s outstanding oversight to explore the cutting edge of surgery with a group of surgeons committed to helping shape it.  If you are a trainee, take advantage of the outstanding webinars and courses offered through our RAFT committee. In short, I hope that however you choose to engage in SAGES, you know how much your presence and care mean to our Society, our profession, and our patients, and that we want you to find SAGES a home and a place where your professional needs are met in a community of learning that is working to hold itself accountable for inclusivity, equity, and diversity to the betterment of us all.

I personally am greatly humbled by the privilege of serving as your president for the coming year, and know that many of you deserve this opportunity more than I. I accordingly want to pledge to our membership, to you, my personal commitment to view the year ahead as a stewardship on all of your behalves, for the growth of each of you in any way we as a Society can contribute to, and ultimately for the well-being of the patients we are privileged to serve.  You individually and collectively represent something truly amazing and special, from our resident and fellow members to our George Berci, who at 101 still is teaching us all how to teach and to innovate for the good of those whom we are called to care for.

I look forward to partnering with you in this year of service!

Warmly, John

SAGES Update from President Liane Feldman, MD

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What a difference a year makes.

Though I was unable to attend the Las Vegas meeting in person, the energy of more than 1,400 attendees being together was virtually contagious. There were so many highlights, including Dr. Horacio Asbun’s moving address, the Presidential Plenary reimagining ways we can all live and thrive as surgeons post COVID, Shark Tank winner Endolumik’s $30,000 prize for its innovative fluorescence-guided calibration system and, of course, the much-missed Sing-Off! I know we’re all grateful the meeting was both successful and healthy.

 As we now look towards the holidays and SAGES 2022 in Denver, we can also be proud of the many committee accomplishments this year. Since my last update, the Technology Council’s second annual Innovation Weekend was held in Houston in June, one of the first in-person meetings of 2021. The third annual Innovation Summit is planned for February 4-5, 2022 in Houston.

Over the summer, I invited Drs. Amin Madani and Aurora Pryor to Chair and Co-Chair, respectively, a new Surgical Data Science (SDS) task force. Access to rich and diverse data remains extremely challenging for our society to pursue a wide breadth of applications, such as video-sharing for coaching, AI research and innovation, and perioperative risk prediction. SDS will explore potential methods and investments SAGES can make to establish large surgical data sets for its membership to pursue research, educational and quality improvement initiatives. We look forward to hearing the group’s recommendations after their zoom retreat this month.

In other committee news, SAGES Video Based Assessment (VBA) task force is creating a task inventory survey for the development of a lap chole VBA as well as beta testing for the lap nissen rubric. The Diversity, Leadership & Professional Development task force has been working on a number of projects, including updated Climate and Demographic surveys, a Cultural Complications curriculum and a Leadership & Professional Development pathway for the larger SAGES Master Program. Finally, FLS testing centers are back running at full capacity, along with remote testing options. The committee is also actively evaluating fresh exam questions against the newly created EPS to ensure we are truly testing what’s in the scope of our mission statement.

It’s hard to believe that it’s just five months until SAGES 2022! Watch upcoming communications for schedule and registration details, along with various submission deadlines at https://www.sages2022.org.

A Message from SAGES President Liane Feldman, MD

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We’re in a good place in 2021, and I’m excited and honored to serve as SAGES president. Despite the pandemic, we can be proud of our many accomplishments over the last year. As members, the year brought many challenges but it was also an opportunity to reassess our professional and personal priorities.

Last month’s Board meeting showed that renewed excitement and engagement, with a multitude of ideas put forth by each of SAGES incredible 42 committees. SAGES has always been focused on surgical techniques that improve outcomes for patients – whether endoscopic, laparoscopic, robotic or the Next Big Thing. We’ll continue to build on these accomplishments by focusing on innovative educational programs for surgeons at every stage of their professional lives that enhance performance and improve quality and outcomes for patients.

There’s so much to look forward to over the next several months with the release of OWLS, our Organizational Wide Learning System that will enhance access to our multitude of educational resources including our ever expanding Masters program; the Technology Council’s 2nd annual Innovation Summit in Houston in June, which this year features the Surgical Disruptive Technology Summit, NOSCAR Summit, Advocacy summit, and the Surgical Video Data Conference ; the Critical View of Safety Computer Vision challenge to evaluate new and exisiting algorithms for automated detection;  the GERD consensus conference; and  the all-new Shark Tank competition at the annual meeting in Las Vegas.

The intersection of technology, education and community is what we love about SAGES, and we are all looking forward to an in-person meeting August 31-September 3. Friendship is one of the hallmarks of SAGES and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible! Register & book housing now at https://www.sages2021.surgery/  

 

A Concluding Message from Dr. Horacio Asbun

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It is amazing that a whole year has passed so quickly!

As I conclude my SAGES presidency, I reflect on all SAGES managed to accomplish, even during a fully virtual pandemic year.

We were PROACTIVE responding to the challenges we had to face

  • Publication of several COVID related statements, webinars and “Notes from the Battlefield” with some international surgical colleagues – https://www.sages.org/category/covid-19/
  • Swiftly closed fundamentals test centers last spring, pivoted to virtual testing, and, at the discretion of each test center, began to slowly and safely re-open sites this winter as local and institutional guidelines allowed
  • Responded to events in the US with anti-racism statements last summer and again last month
  • Convened virtual retreats to address potential threats to SAGES following the pandemic, as well as to address our foregut initiatives and strategy

We continued to INNOVATE

  • Expanded and implemented groundbreaking changes on our Shark Tank program to a multi round competition, including written submissions, virtual pitch presentations by semi-finalists, final presentations at the Shark Tank Session at the SAGES meeting, and a $30,000 prize to the winner. Also new this year, all finalists will receive an opportunity to receive funding through the newly formed SAGES Investor Network (SINC), which will allow fellow SAGES members to invest in your idea.
  • Conducted an Industry Roundtable with 29 colleagues representing 11 of our industry sponsors and discussed innovative changes in our relations with Industry, focusing on creating exciting projects
  • Continued the work of the Technology Council, adding the Fluorescence Imaging and Digital Surgery sub-groups which are already doing great work
  • Planned the 2nd SAGES Innovation Weekend for this June 4-5 in Houston, with the Next Big Thing Summit combined with the Surgical Disruptive Technology Summit, along with Advocacy Summit, a Surgical Video Data Conference, and the 15th International NOSCAR Summit
  • The Artificial Intelligence Task Force continues its mission of educating SAGES members about AI and its implications for clinical practices, research, and education, while also growing its liaison efforts with Safe Chole, VBA, digital surgery, and community surgery.

We maintained our track record to EDUCATE during a year where in-person education was not feasible

  • Pivoted with less than two months’ notice to a virtual SAGES meeting in August, 2020
  • Provided virtual ADOPT and Train the Trainers courses
  • Conducted hybrid robotics courses for fellows.
  • Continued our Global education, shifting our Global Advancement Laparoscopic Program (GLAP) to a virtual program with tele-simulation and continuing to implement in Mexico City, Mexico, Leon Guanajuato, Mexico, and new site in Costa Rica.
  • Postponed SAGES 2021 spring meeting to late August 2021, with hopes of being able to safely re-convene in person.
  • Continued our resident webinar education series of six webinars; topics covering Career Development, ABSITE reviews, Flex Endo training in Rural America, Pediatric surgery and innovations in Hernia surgery.
  • Education Council progressed with a pilot for the Lap Fundoplication Video Based Assessment (VBA) and is beginning work on the Lap Chole VBA. The Curriculum Group completed Goals and Objectives for all clinical pathways of the Masters Program. Many pathways have been added to the program since its inception. The Business and Technology Group has readied OWLS for an early release to committee chairs.

We persisted in our ability to COLLABORATE

  • Participation in the CVGSC (Coronavirus Global Surgical Collaborative), which includes surgical leaders from multiple countries and different continents and will continue in the future as the GSC
  • Formed a Leadership Through Crisis group with presidents of several US & international sister surgical societies to address the challenges we all have shared
  • Initiated oncology webinar series with sister societies on Improving Cancer Care delivered through Minimally Invasive Surgery
  • Currently working with 5 sister societies for the Consensus Conference on GERD in August, 2021, and 12 sister societies on the Multi-Society Guidelines for Endoscopy Credentialing

We were LEADERS

  • Formation of RPS Task Force – Reimagining the Practice of Surgery, whose primary goal is promoting/regaining the joy in the practice of surgery and making institutions more vested in creating a positive work environment for surgeons
  • Despite pandemic, continued work on SAGES strategic plan, with on time deliverables
  • We inducted our 7000th member!
  • Thanks to past treasurers and presidents, we were prepared for and weathered the financial storm that accompanied a pandemic year and cancellation of the 2020 annual meeting.

Looking forward, I expect we will be able to reunite in person in Las Vegas for our SAGES 2021 Annual Meeting with an exceptional program that includes very unique subjects for the Storz & Marks keynote lectures. Register & book housing now! https://www.sages2021.surgery/

I end my Presidential year feeling grateful, humbled and with a strong sense of optimism:

Grateful to all the Executive Committee, the SAGES Board, the committee chairs/co-chairs, program chairs, SAGES Foundation, Dr. Pon and to Sallie Matthews and her excellent staff for making this unprecedented year a successful one for SAGES.

Humbled by the tremendous work of “the people of SAGES” including the work done by prior leaders. As a President, I was able to see it all and understand how SAGES has become the organization is today.

Optimistic for what is coming. The development and implementation of our 2019 strategic plan along with this year’s projects in innovation, the practice of surgery and how we relate to industry places SAGES in a strong position for the future. This is coupled with the superb leaders that are taking over the privileged position of President of SAGES: Liane Feldman for 2021 and John Mellinger for 2022. They will undoubtedly lead our society to a bright future.

Horacio J. Asbun, MD

SAGES Update from President Horacio Asbun

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As I enter my eighth month of SAGES presidency, it appears surreal that my whole presidency has basically been a virtual one. What it also means is that everyone else’s  life over the last eight months has been the same. We’re still battling the virus and largely interacting in a virtual world, but despite so, SAGES has found ways to thrive through the pandemic and tried to capitalize on anything good that can come out of it.

In lieu of meeting together at the ACS Clinical Congress, we had 42 virtual committee meetings last month, and just convened our virtual board meeting. SAGES remains alive, vibrant and active as ever, representing 7,100 members worldwide. We have made tremendous strides with our strategic plan. A few highlights are below:

Global Surgical Collaborative (GSC)

As I mentioned in my July message, we formed a Coronavirus Global Surgical Collaborative in March, which included surgeons from around the globe and responded quickly to COVID, issuing ten statements in three months. The group evolved over the summer and fall to address issues facing the global surgical community, and now has been renamed the Global Surgical Collaborative.

Technology Council

Following a successful Next Big Thing (NBT) Summit/Innovation Weekend in February, the Tech Council is busy pursuing a growing number of initiatives, under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Schlachta. Given the success of the 2020 Summit, another Summit is planned for May 7-8, 2021.  New for this year, we will partner with the Surgical Disruptive Technologies Summit (SDTS), chaired by Dr. Erik Wilson, for a joint NBT/SDTS Summit.  In addition, NOSCAR will join the Summit. In parallel, there will also be a second AI Summit and second Advocacy Summit, to continue the advances made at the 2020 gathering. Also new will be an Advocacy Boot Camp, which will train attendee surgeons in how to advocate with insurance companies and regulators.

The original NBT working groups (Innovation, Evidence and Dissemination), whose tasks were delineated at the Innovation Summit and refined within SAGES Strategic Plan, continue their hard work.  The development of multiple registries of subject matter experts, resources for innovators, research expertise for clinical trials, are all in progress.

Two new technology based working groups have been added to the Tech Council, both of which can be considered “next big things.”  The goal of the Digital Surgery Group, led by Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, is to define the relationship between technology and patient care into the next century, and to guide the next generation of surgeons through an increasingly complex technological patient care matrix.  The pandemic has quickly enabled growth in the fields of telehealth and telepresence. The goal of the Fluorescence Imaging Group, led by Dr. Raul Rosenthal, is to address innovation in this rapidly evolving field and take it to the next level of adoption and development.

Finally, the NBT is being incorporated into the SAGES meeting for 2021 and into the future.  The Emerging Technology Session will be re-branded as the NBT Session, retaining the same focus of the prior Emerging Tech Session. In 2021, a major and impactful change to the Shark Tank is being considered. Shark Tank will include a significant monetary award for the most promising innovation. Stay tuned for more details.

Reimagining the Practice of Surgery

Since its first meeting in March, the newly formed Re-Imagining the Practice of Surgery Task Force (RPS) has held several calls with members motivated to achieve the group’s goals: taking more control and promoting joy; encouraging surgeons’ optimal performance; making institutions more vested in creating a healthier, efficient and positive work environment; positively disrupting work patterns that prevent innovation, continuing to be a society that attracts new generations of successful leaders; and, obtaining knowledge to design solutions.

As it works towards actual solutions, the group is actively moving forward on a pilot research project that will involve live interviews of a diverse group of SAGES members. Members will be asked to share their thoughts about maintaining motivation and joy in the practice of surgery, retaining autonomy, and other issues related to sustaining that initial attraction of becoming a surgeon. The group will also be using its findings to create an exciting “Reimagining Wellness” session at the 2021 annual meeting.

SAGES 2021

Plan now to attend SAGES annual meeting, “Re-Imagining a Healthier World,” now tentatively scheduled for June 15-18, 2021 in Las Vegas. Drs. Adnan Alseidi & Dana Telem have an excellent program planned. Check http://www.sages2021.surgery/ frequently for updates.

We hope you will continue to keep SAGES and our mission, vision and core values in mind throughout the Fall and winter.

Mission: To innovate, educate and collaborate to improve patient care

Vision: Re-imagining surgical care for a healthier world

Values: Inclusivity, innovation, service, excellence, global community (and an unofficial value of FUN)

Lastly, I again would like to thank SAGES Executive Committee members who work with me weekly to conduct the business of the Society: Drs. Aurora Pryor, Liane Feldman, John Mellinger, Chris Schlachta, Patricia Sylla and Brent Matthews. Thank you, too, to Sallie Matthews and her team for their invaluable support to our society.

Stay safe,

Horacio J. Asbun, MD

president@sages.org

 

 

SAGES Update from President Horacio Asbun

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As I enter my fourth month as SAGES president, during continued unprecedented times in our collective lives, I am reminded that SAGES is an extraordinary organization. Although we’re not able to meet in person for the 2020 annual meeting, the work and vitality of the Society remains strong. We are pleased to debut our new monthly e-newsletter MesSAGES, replacing the prior semi-annual SCOPE. Our hope is to consolidate timely information and curtail the number of emails to your in-box.

SAGES moved rapidly in response to COVID-19, issuing ten statements between March and May, forming the Coronavirus Global Surgical Collaborative (CVGSC) with our surgical colleagues around the globe, which issued “Notes from the Battlefield” statements during the same time period, and conducting four Zoom webinars and countless Facebook webinars. All can be found at https://www.sages.org/category/covid-19/. SAGES also spearheaded the creation of International Guidelines on Safe Return to Surgical and Endoscopic Practice, a Delphi Consensus from the CVGSC, with the participation of 50 experts, patient representatives, and top policy makers from 15 countries and four continents. A rigorous process was carried and completed in a little over four weeks.

In early June, observing the unfortunate events occurring in our country, SAGES again moved quickly to issue a statement denouncing racism.

It was my honor this spring to form the Re-Imagining the Practice of Surgery (RPS) Task Force, chaired by President-Elect Dr. Liane Feldman. The RPS group met virtually in the winter and spring, conducted one of the webinars, and has the following goals:

  • Take more control and promote joys in the practice of surgery
  • Encourage surgeons to cultivate habits that support optimal performance
  • Make institutions more vested in creating a healthier, efficient and positive work environment
  • Positively disrupt work patterns that prevent innovation
  • Continue being a society that attracts new generations of successful leaders
  • Obtain knowledge to design solutions

Stay tuned for more from this exciting new group.

Despite quarantine and continued uncertainty in our collective lives, we found reason to celebrate. SAGES welcomed its 7,000th member! Our membership committee continues their efforts, and we rely on existing members to serve as our greatest ambassadors of membership recruitment. Please direct prospective members to https://www.sages.org/membership/.

Our Technology Council, under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Schlachta, continues to grow and thrive, with new working groups on Fluorescence led by Dr. Raul Rosenthal and Digital Surgery led by Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov. Following the “Next Big Thing” (NBT) Summit last February, we look forward to an NBT/ Disruptive Surgical Technologies Summit in February 2021. Stay tuned for more details.

We remain grateful to SAGES Foundation for their continued support of SAGES education and research endeavors and initiatives, and to Dr. Pon Satitpunwaycha for his generous contributions to SAGES OWLS (Organizational Worldwide Learning System), expected to launch in the coming months, and our ongoing technology for education efforts, including the Tech Council, NBT Summit, Video Based Assessment initiative, Artificial Intelligence and e-learning initiatives. Visit https://www.sagesfoundation.org/ to make a donation today, and obtain a copy of Dr. George Berci’s new autobiography.

SAGES enormous bandwidth is due to its Board, 42 committee and task force chairs/cochairs, and more than 800 committee members. The volunteer link is now closed for this year, but requests for next year can still be submitted via https://www.sages.org/leadership/committees/volunteer/.

Please plan to participate in the virtual SAGES 2020 Meeting on August 11-13 or access the presentations in the months that follow. CME credits are available. We still hope to meet in person in Las Vegas, April 7-10, 2021 for SAGES meeting, “Re-Imagining a Healthier World.” Thanks to Drs. Adnan Alseidi and Dana Telem who have put together an exciting program! Registration and housing details will come later this Fall.

We hope you will keep SAGES and our mission, vision and core values in mind throughout this year.

Mission: To innovate, educate and collaborate to improve patient care

Vision: Re-imagining surgical care for a healthier world

Values: Inclusivity, innovation, service, excellence, global community (and an unofficial value of FUN)

Lastly, I would like to thank SAGES Executive Committee members who work with me weekly to conduct the business of the Society: Drs. Aurora Pryor, Liane Feldman, John Mellinger, Chris Schlachta, Patricia Sylla and Brent Matthews. Thank you, too, to Sallie Matthews and her team for the invaluable support to our society.

It is not only an honor but also a fun job to serve as SAGES president, when working with such a remarkable group of people. And that is despite the crazy times we are all going through

Stay safe,

Horacio J. Asbun, MD
president@sages.org

Message from Horacio J. Asbun – SAGES President

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we are realizing just how extensively our lives are being affected by it.  It curtails our freedom during our daily work life; we are no longer the ones deciding who gets to have surgery, or how many surgical masks we get per week, or if we can test our patient for the virus before surgery. We are seeing our colleagues from anesthesia, ICU, ED and ID exhausted, overworked, and in some cases getting ill. We are being called to fill in for their roles. As we deal with our own very real personal fears, we have to find ways to remind ourselves that all of this will one day pass. It will.

In the meantime, it is our responsibility to make the right decisions for our patients, our colleagues, and ourselves during this stressful situation.  Because that is what we, as surgeons and surgical team members, do in our daily lives. It is our responsibility to find hope amidst the chaos, and support those colleagues that may be the most overwhelmed by the crisis despite their daily heroic actions and decisions. Finding hope is also part of what we do and give to our patients and their families in our daily lives. It is our responsibility to step-up and be leaders during this crisis, because surgeons are intrinsic leaders, as necessitated by the nature of our work and our role within the surgical team.

I now have the honor of being the president of SAGES. I use the word honor this year, not just for the usual reasons that the position entails within this great organization, but in particular because I have been humbled as I witness how SAGES reacts to this crisis. At all levels of the SAGES family, from the past president, to Executive Committee and Board members, and many other committee and individual members. They have proactively stepped up utilizing their leadership skills and working very hard to make a positive difference during this crisis. Not only at their local level but for the surgical community at large. These actions are undertaken without any expectation of academic or financial reward, and are inspiring to witness.

There is no better testament to our new vision statement: “Reimagining surgical care for a healthier world”. Who knew, less than five months ago when the vision statement was created, that it would be put to such a drastic test during one of the worst health care crisis in our history… and yes, we really are doing so.

Please remember you are a surgeon, you are a leader, make good use of those, your qualities during these difficult times! We will learn from this experience and we will become better for our patients and for each other. Understand that fear and courage are not exclusive.  Experiencing fear for ourselves and our loved ones is normal and we must honor the feeling. Going to work despite it shows courage and we should also honor that fact.

Don’t forget for a moment that soon we will be celebrating camaraderie, collegiality and the art of having good fun together, as we do so every year.

Stay well, best wishes to you and yours.

 

Horacio J. Asbun, MD

SAGES President

Visit https://www.sages.org/category/covid-19/ for SAGES updated statements regarding COVID-19.

Visit https://www.sages.org/video/surgical-guidelines-during-covid-19/ to view the SAGES April 8, 2020 webinar on Surgical Guidelines during COVID-19.

Message from the President: April 3, 2020

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Despite ending my SAGES presidency in the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to reach out to the SAGES membership and thank each one of you that contributed to SAGES in some way to make this an incredible year.  I have been honored to serve as your President and delighted at the accomplishments we have made together.  We have more than 800 active and engaged committee members and more than 6,500 members.  With the support of our awesome BSC staff, this society, more than any other I work with, really gets stuff done.

With many active and engaged members also come many great ideas. In order to help streamline our organization and to get alignment and prioritization for our initiatives, we held a strategic planning retreat in Asheville, North Carolina last fall in conjunction with our fall Board meeting.  For this retreat we brought in a variety of SAGES leaders as well as some young SAGES members and more senior advisers to harness our collective intelligence and to set appropriate strategic goals.  We developed new mission and vision statements and clarified our core values.  We also clarified a robust strategic plan with specific goals and timelines. This is available in detail on our website to help guide our SAGES membership and leadership.  We hope these goals and plans resonate with each of you and clarify what SAGES is trying to do.

Some of these concepts I’ve been delighted to dive into during my presidency, although these initiatives are no longer uniquely presidential and are planned in conjunction with the entire Executive Committee to be multi-year projects aligning with these SAGES goals.

A major highlight of the year for me was Innovation Weekend, held in February.  It was actually three meetings rolled into one.  The first day of the weekend was the Next Big Thing Summit led by Christopher Schlachta.  We were able to meet with industry partners and creative surgeons to brainstorm ways that SAGES as a society can support new ideas. We discussed that while many SAGES members are housed in academic centers that have infrastructure for device development and patent acquisition, a large share of our members don’t have those resources.  SAGES can have two key functions to help prospective inventors:   The first of these is a grant process to provide real seed/Angel funds for inventors, possibly as a dollar prize for our annual meeting shark tank.  The second is to identify a network of partners to help with engineering, patent law, and potentially partners for new technology incubation and start-ups.  We realized the worth of this off-cycle meeting with equal partnership amongst industry, innovators and surgeons and plan to continue to host an additional Innovation Weekend in 2021.

In addition to the Next Big Thing, we also held an Advocacy Summit, attended by surgeons, industry partners, employer and device advocacy groups, the FDA, as well as national representatives from a major insurer.  The summit, led by Ross Goldberg, addressed a strategic pathway to get reimbursed sooner for new technologies and procedures. The group discussion culminated in the concept of continuing to meet formally as a gastrointestinal consortium that could guide evidence development to shorten the chasm between FDA approval and reimbursement.

The final arm of Innovation Weekend spun out of our new AI committee led by Oz Meireles.  They have been networking amazingly well with our industry partners and found a need in the area of video annotation.  In order to develop computer analysis of video imaging that can cross talk across systems, a standard in video annotation must be shared by all parties.  We were able to get key vendors all in the same room to standardize annotation for lap chole.  The meeting was so successful that we are already planning the next summit at Innovation Weekend 2021.  Innovation weekend, as well as many of our recent and upcoming efforts in technology and education were generously sponsored by Dr. Pon Satitpunwaycha, our largest individual Foundation donor in SAGES history. We really enjoyed Dr. Pon’s participation in Innovation Weekend and the opportunity to get to know him on a personal level.

One other major area that has been supported by Dr. Pon is our focused area of Education.  This year we are rolling out our Organization Wide Learning System, known as OWLS.  OWLS is a major advancement in SAGES IT, allowing us to host and access all of our online learning content from one central location.  We continue to build our Masters Program which will be hosted on OWLS. This year we added a new Pathway to the Masters Program, in the less tangible area of Leadership and Professional Development.  The curriculum development, led by Dana Telem and the Leadership and Professionalism Committee, is also supported by Caitlin Halbert with the Community Practice Committee, Rebecca Petersen and the Research Committee, and Debby Keller and the Burnout Taskforce from our Quality, Outcomes and Safety Committee.

Also in the realm of education, we have developed a new tool for video assessment.  Liane Feldman and Matt Ritter led this effort which is described here (https://rdcu.be/bQVbi).  We will soon have tools for lap chole and lap hernia with plans to develop assessments for all Masters pathways.

We have recently been approved by the Fellowship Council as the sponsoring society of a new Foregut Fellowship classification.  ASMBS and SSAT accepted our invitation to co-sponsor this fellowship which gives recognition for programs that train deeply in laparoscopic, robotic or endoscopic approaches to foregut disease.  Please look out for the official announcement in the coming weeks.  The designation will be available in the next fellowship year.  We are also developing clarification for the Flexible Endoscopy Fellowship.  We are proposing both Advanced (Disease focused) and Comprehensive levels in this program.

We ended this year by hosting our final committee and board meetings in a completely virtual format.  I was really impressed with the high level of participation and engagement of our members, as always.  I am very excited to see all of you personally August 12-15 in Cleveland for the finale of my Presidential year and the 2020 SAGES’ Annual Meeting.  However, at this time I am turning over the Presidency to the very capable Horacio Asbun so that he can have a full 12 months as SAGES’ President.

Thanks again to all of you as we continue to “Reimagine surgical care for a healthier world.”

Your 2019-2020 SAGES President,

Aurora Pryor, MD, MBA

A Message from the SAGES President

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These are uncertain times for all of us facing the COVID-19 pandemic. As surgeons, we are seeing a halt to our elective practice, a transition to virtual clinic visits, and potential redeployment into areas of the front line in ICUs or medical wards that are outside of our regular practice patterns. Healthcare workers overall are facing potential equipment shortages, including in personal protective equipment. SAGES is working hard to provide resources to help you navigate this unfamiliar landscape. I can’t believe it was only two weeks ago that we postponed our annual meeting until August.

On March 19, we issued a statement recommending considerations for surgical practice during the pandemic, but landscapes are local, and the situation is in rapid evolution. The March 19 statement was written by the Quality, Outcomes and Safety Committee, led by Jonathan Dort, Konstantinos Spaniolas and Deborah Keller with input from a broad group of our other SAGES leaders. Please keep in mind that even though a significant effort is placed in bringing you the best information, our recommendations are not meant to be rigorous scientific guidelines and they may evolve as additional evidence becomes available.

The Acute Care committee led by Rob Lim with co-authors Kim Davis, Andre Campbell and Mike Cripps shared their critical care experience with us in a primer for those of us who will be expanding our scope of practice by necessity. We also have a primer on Telehealth on our site written by Kevin Wasco, Shawn Tsuda, Christopher Schlachta, Caitlin Halbert and Jonathan Dort with input from our SAGES executives. The included codes may help you navigate this useful modality.

Other resources on our webpage come from our global partners. Horacio Asbun, SAGES’ President-elect, has established a coalition called Corona Virus Global Surgical Collaborative of front line COVID-fighters from across the globe. We are meeting virtually weekly to exchange experiences and best practices. We plan to share lessons learned on our website and in publication. The first set of documents from this coalition are from Salvador Morales and the Spanish Association of Surgeons. We are working to translate these into English, but believe many of you will still find them helpful in their current form. They are not formally endorsed. Keep posted as there is more to come!

We have set up a webpage detailing our recommendations and resources with links to other helpful sites for the latest information on COVID-19. Please visit:

https://www.sages.org/category/covid-19/

We are updating it almost daily. To avoid further email saturation, updates and new statements will be posted there instead of emailed.

Thank you for all of the hard work all of you do and your commitment to our SAGES Mission: Innovate, educate and collaborate to improve patient care.

Most sincerely,

Aurora

Remembering Our Second SAGES President – Kenneth Forde, MD

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We are sad to share with our SAGES family that Dr. Kenneth Forde passed away peacefully on Sunday morning, June 2.

Dr. Forde was a giant in the world of surgery, the definition of grace and class, and a true statesman. He was the co-founder of SAGES (with Dr. Gerald Marks) and our second President. He was Editor-in-Chief of Surgical Endoscopy for 10 years, Governor of the American College of Surgeons, and President of the 8th (2002) World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery. He was involved over the years in inter-organization deliberations and other activities, including the American Board of Surgery, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. A former President of the New York Surgical Society and the New York Society for Gastrointestinal Surgery, he served as Secretary of the SAGES Education and Research Foundation and was on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Surgical Fellowships.

He was an active colorectal surgeon, endoscopic surgeon, teacher and researcher at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, received countless honors for teaching, humanitarianism and alumni service. Dr. Forde was the recipient of the SAGES Distinguished Service Award and the George Berci Lifetime Achievement Award. He was active in his church, a friend and mentor to many, and married to his wife Kay (who predeceased him in April, 2017) for 60 years. He will be missed, but never forgotten.

A memorial service will take place on Saturday, July 13 at 11:00 AM, at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (Amsterdam at 112th Street) in New York City.

Dr. Forde asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to two of his favorite causes:

The Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Endowment for Music at Christchurch Riverdale
5030 Henry Hudson Parkway East
Bronx, NY 10471

Kenneth A. Forde Scholarship
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Attn: Laura Tenenbaum
516 West 168th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10032

 

Message from The President

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Daniel J. Scott, MD

Daniel J. Scott, MD, FACS, President, SAGES

When assuming the SAGES presidency 11 months ago, I could not imagine what the year would entail and how fast the time would go by. Indeed, I now find myself drafting my annual meeting presidential address and this, my last message to the full SAGES membership. Thank you for the opportunity to lead and guide SAGES in the past year – this has been a fantastic honor and I am extremely proud of the great people we have in our organization.

We have indeed had a busy year with countless conference calls and meetings. Much to my delight, we have made significant progress in many areas and our organization remains quite strong. We have been fortunate enough to invest in several new initiatives over the past few years, over and above our annual budget. To balance that innovation and fiscal responsibility, the Executive Committee and Board agreed this year would be budget neutral. We have requested greater involvement from committee chairs in budget oversight, in addition to the standard staff, Finance & Executive Committee oversight. In addition, we asked our Development committee to embark upon an Alternative Funding Solutions initiative.

Over the past several years, the size, scope and number of SAGES educational initiatives has increased substantially. All of these are exciting and innovative projects, and all will advance innovation and patient care. We have been grateful for the generous support of our industry partners over the years, and we anticipate that they will continue to support SAGES educational initiatives, including our upcoming annual meeting. In addition, the SAGES Foundation continues to be a major supporter of many of our initiatives, especially in their early stages of development. However, as much as we appreciate the support of our industry partners and the Foundation, we cannot continue to rely solely on them to fund an ever-increasing list of activities. At the same time, SAGES cannot continue to move educational initiatives forward without funds to support them. To that end, SAGES has begun a focused initiative to explore, research, and obtain funding from alternative sources, including government agencies, such as NIH and AHRQ, and private foundations. This alternative funding solution initiative is multi-pronged, and includes identifying current funding opportunities for existing projects, while simultaneously developing forward-thinking plans and proposals to obtain grants for long-term educational initiatives, research, and programs. Success in this new arena will provide exciting new opportunities for SAGES, and enable us to take our organization to the next level in the advancement of education, innovation, and patient care.
Another major initiative we undertook this year was to launch a long overdue exploration of the fellowships affiliated with SAGES. The first step was to formally transition the former Resident Education Committee into the Resident and Fellowship Training (RAFT) Committee. By commissioning RAFT to take a lead role in fellowship curriculum development, SAGES is capitalizing on an opportunity to redefine MIS Fellowships at a time when surgical education is evolving at all levels. Working in partnership with the Fellowship Council, this initiative will ultimately revamp the curricula for GI surgery fellowships, standardize and enhance training by incorporating Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) as a competency metric, and align with the impending changes in General Surgery residency. As important, the process will better define and underscore the value of maintaining the MIS name in these fellowships, a move overwhelmingly supported by the SAGES Board at our Spring 2016 meeting.

I hosted an executive committee retreat last August, in an effort for us to spend time critically thinking about several aspects of our organization. We surveyed our board members, committee chairs, and numerous past presidents prior to this meeting to identify areas that needed to be addressed. This meeting was fruitful, and solidified our action plans to optimize our organizational infrastructure, including efforts to streamline our governance processes and enhance communication between committees. Arguably, as a result, we had one of our best fall board meetings, which fostered in-depth discussions about substantial and relevant issues. We also established plans to explore alternative funding pathways, opportunities to enhance science in our field, and increase our value to members and the public.

Our Curriculum Task Force has made tremendous strides towards the realization of our SAGES University Masters Program. When the program is fully launched next year, SAGES members will be able to choose clear pathways of coursework that progress from a Competency Curriculum to Proficiency to Mastery in eight areas of focus (Acute Care, Bariatric, Biliary, Colon, Flexible Endoscopy, Foregut, Hernia, and Robotics). The Masters Program will not only leverage the wealth of existing SAGES educational resources, but in keeping with the philosophy of our Society, we will capitalize on technological advancements to improve the process. We’re exploring a new software platform to house all SAGES educational offerings, and the program will take advantage of social media to drive further engagement and skills assessment. You can start your foray into the Masters Program at SAGES 2017 by taking one of our Masters Series Courses and by looking for the launch announcement of our eight Masters Program Facebook Collaborative Groups.

The FES team has been working closely with the American Board of Surgery to ensure SAGES and residency program directors are prepared for the ABS mandate and that all members of the 2018 graduating surgical residency class pass the FES exam prior to sitting for their surgical boards.

Many FES test centers are operational, and the majority of general surgery residents are within 50 miles of one. Testing is also available during the SAGES & ACS conferences.

A wealth of innovative educational and scientific updates await you at the SAGES 2017 annual meeting, March 22-25 in Houston.

New features unique to 2017 include:

  • “Your Sessions”, with lecture topics selected by you, SAGES membership
  • SAGES “Video Face-Off” featuring pre-recorded video sessions from experts showing different approaches to procedures
  • “Let’s Do Lunch” provides an open forum to discuss specific topics of interest with your peers
  • Keynote lectures by Brian Jacob, MD, Dave Kerpen and Jaap Bonjer, MD
  • SAGES Gala at the Space Center
  • And much more!
    Register now at sages2017.org

Without experimentation, it is impossible to innovate. SAGES has grown to 36 committees and task forces, each with a unique mandate and goals. Our committee chairs work tirelessly on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, in addition to their busy surgical practices. 618 members serve on one or more committees to further the work of the Society. SAGES Board of Governors and Executive Committee not only meet in person, but electronically and by conference call throughout the year to ensure the Society is reaching its goals, approving committee initiatives and continuing to lead in the world of surgery. To each of these leaders, and to the more than 6300 SAGES members across the globe, I am grateful. It has been an honor and pleasure to serve as your President.

Daniel J. Scott, MD, FACS, SAGES President

Click https://www.sages.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SCOPE-2017-winter.pdf to return to SCOPE Winter 2017.

SAGES Welcomes New Board of Governors, Officers and President Dr. Brian Dunkin

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Advancing Telementoring and Improving Outcomes to be Top Priorities

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) announced the election of Brian J. Dunkin, M.D., as President on April 18th as part of the SAGES 2015 Annual Meeting. Dr. Dunkin is the Head of Surgical Endoscopy at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, and Medical Director of the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Education (MITIE) – a comprehensive education and research institute. He is also Professor of Clinical Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and the John F., Jr. & Carolyn Bookout Chair in Surgical Innovation & Technology.

“I am humbled by the honor of serving as SAGES President for the upcoming year,” said Dr. Dunkin. “The energy and unique ideas created by our membership are unlike any other organization and I am committed to fostering that vitality into meaningful initiatives that serve our members and their patients well.”

Dr. Dunkin will lead two new SAGES initiatives aimed at improving patient care. The first is focused on organizing the society’s work in the quality and outcomes landscape by holding a SAGES Quality Summit in Washington D.C., May 15-16, 2015. There, multiple stakeholders in the field will come together to share their work. The Quality, Outcomes, and Safety Committee will use this information to map out SAGES’ strategy for contributing uniquely to the quality landscape. The second initiative will focus on advancing the field of telementoring – having the ability to mentor a surgeon in one’s own operating room through the early part of their learning curve. Current audio-visual technology enables this type of interaction over distance in a meaningful way and SAGES has created a Telementoring Task Force to leverage collective knowledge and push this field forward. The Task Force is holding a Project 6 Summit in Los Angeles, August 20-22, 2015, where stakeholders in the field will convene to map out strategies to advance the field.

Dr. Dunkin has been a member of the SAGES Board of Governors since 2006 and Chairs the Flexible Endoscopy Committee. He was the Program Chair for the SAGES 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, and serves on the Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) Program, Open-to-MIS, and Finance and Assets Committees. Dr. Dunkin’s areas of research and publication include simulation in healthcare, measurement of procedural skills, techniques in minimally invasive surgery, endolumenal surgery, biliary endoscopy, Barrett’s esophagus, and esophageal physiology.

Additionally, Daniel J. Scott, M.D., has been elected President-Elect of SAGES. Dr. Scott is the Executive Director at the Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He holds the Frank H. Kidd, Jr. MD Distinguished Professorship in Surgery and is Professor and Vice Chair of Education for UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Department of Surgery.

Also joining the SAGES Board this year will be Drs. Robert Lim, Paresh Shah and Patricia Sylla.

Message from the President – Summer 2014

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It is a tremendous honor and privilege to serve as your SAGES President for the coming year. It was 22 years ago that I became a SAGES member and attended my first SAGES meeting in Washington, DC. The atmosphere at that meeting was electrifying and I will never forget it – it was still in the rapid growth phase of the laparoscopic revolution and it seemed that every week something new was being done laparoscopically. That meeting was also the debut of the Lap Rappers and the precursor to the Friday night main event that has become a signature feature of every SAGES meeting.

Today as I reflect back, it is amazing to see the evolution of our society to an organization that has impacted education and training, research, and innovation in virtually every aspect of GI and endoscopic surgery. Our annual meeting continues to be the centerpiece of our educational activities and we recently had another successful meeting in Salt Lake City with 2000 attendees who experienced a comprehensive program put on by Jeff Marks and Tonia Young-Fadok. Next April 15-18 we will be in Music City in Nashville and Aurora Pryor and Michael Holzman, the Program Chairs for 2015, are planning a fabulous educational meeting.

SAGES now has more than 6300 members, 33 committees, and more than 400 committee members who devote countless hours of work toward making our society and the surgical world a better place. SAGES as much as anything represents opportunity for its members – the opportunity to get involved, to contribute to the work of our various committees and projects, to participate in the annual meeting, and to make a difference in surgical care for our patients.

I’d like to highlight some important initiatives that have been undertaken by our society over the last several years that continue to build and gather momentum. The SAGES Fundamentals portfolio now consists of FLS, FES (Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery) and FUSE (Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy). FLS has been taken by more than 5300 general surgery residents over the last 5 years and under the leadership of Steve Schwaitzberg, is exploring international efforts in Latin America, China and other parts of the world. The Flexible Endoscopy curriculum was developed by the American Board of Surgery, in conjunction with SAGES and other GI societies, an effort led by Brian Dunkin. The curriculum has FES (led by Jeff Marks) as the centerpiece, and has now been mandated for general surgery residents graduating in the 2017-2018 academic year along with FES certification. I encourage you to support FES by reviewing the on line web based didactic program and by taking the FES examination; and if you are in a training institution, to integrate the Flexible Endoscopy Curriculum and FES into your surgical training programs. And FUSE, led by Dan Jones, will become available this summer as the first comprehensive educational program to address the topic of surgical energy and safe use of energy devices in the OR.

Enhanced patient safety and improving surgical outcomes are among my top priorities as president. Although it’s been almost 25 years since laparoscopic cholecystectomy transformed the surgical world, we continue to see major bile duct injuries that occur during this most common of procedures. Moreover, the occurrence of a major bile duct injury can be devastating for the patient who otherwise would have undergone an outpatient procedure with prompt return to their normal activities.

At my direction, SAGES has formed the Safety in Cholecystectomy Task Force led by Rob Fanelli and Horacio Asbun with the mission of encouraging a universal culture of safety for cholecystectomy and reducing biliary injuries. The group has distributed a Delphi survey to our committee members in an effort to develop expert consensus on the factors deemed important for the safe performance of cholecystectomy. The results of this survey will guide the task force and bring focus to the project. A subgroup of the task force will hold a retreat in St. Louis this summer to review the Delphi results and further refine the strategic plan for this program with plans to roll out the first phase of this multimodal initiative within a year.

Finally, it is important to be mindful of our humble origins as a society and of our roots in flexible GI endoscopy. To that end, I have asked Tonia Young-Fadok to produce a documentary film on the beginnings of SAGES that we anticipate will premiere at our annual meeting in April. We also plan to highlight other aspects of SAGES incredible history in the coming year as well.

This is a unique and perhaps historic time in medicine with transformative changes taking place in healthcare. We face not only tremendous economic challenges ahead and constraints regarding the costs of the care we deliver, but will also be increasingly be judged and paid according to the quality of our care and the outcomes we achieve. We also live in an increasing regulatory environment that may negatively impact innovation and the development of new technology. SAGES will continue to lead the way as we navigate these challenges and I encourage each of you to stay engaged and communicate to us your thoughts and ideas or concerns. I am convinced that together we can meet the great challenges in GI surgery and medicine in the 21st century.

L. Michael Brunt, MD
SAGES President

SAGES Welcomes New Board of Governors, Officers and President Dr. Michael Brunt

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L. Michael Brunt, MD

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) announced the election of L. Michael Brunt, M.D., as its new president on April 5th as part of the SAGES Annual Meeting. Dr. Brunt is Professor of Surgery, Director of the Minimally Invasive Fellowship Program and Co-Director of the Washington University Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Enhanced patient safety and improving surgical outcomes will be among Dr. Brunt’s top priorities as president. Read the full press release on PRWeb.

Message from the President – Winter 2014

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It is now about half-way through my year as President. It has been a busy time, reflecting the energy of SAGES and the commitment of its members to work on behalf of our favourite specialty society. We held a retreat and the mid-year Board meeting in Montreal on October 25-26. The retreat addressed several issues of critical importance to the future of SAGES. Let me use this forum to communicate a summary of our discussions.

Surgical Recovery

SAGES efforts in minimally invasive surgery and flexible endoscopy are to improve and accelerate surgical recovery. Most of the literature supporting the use of MIS and endoscopic procedures emphasizes the benefits to our patients. We are a patient-centered organization, but we have not yet maximized the opportunities to measure and improve the complex metric called ‘recovery’. During the retreat we delved into surgical recovery to discuss how we might measure recovery, how we could influence it, what the opportunities for research and education are in this area, and how SAGES could take a leadership role in this field, especially with respect to patients undergoing GI surgery. We have established a task force to study and improve surgical recovery, led by Dr. Liane Feldman, and have adopted the acronym SMART for this program. The SAGES SMART task force (Surgical Multimodal Accelerated Recovery Trajectory) will address the current knowledge about enhanced recovery programs, areas for research, and develop a course for the upcoming SAGES meeting to teach the principles of accelerated recovery, including how to overcome barriers to change within one’s institution. We also will develop a web resource and a mentorship program for people interested in adopting these strategies in their institutions. Look for an upcoming editorial in Surgical Endoscopy on this topic.

Membership

Membership is the lifeblood of the organization. For SAGES to be successful and influential, we need to meet the needs and create value for our membership. One of the retreat groups reviewed membership trends over the past 5 years in each of our membership categories, looked at conversion from candidate to active membership, and tried to understand why some decided to drop their membership. They were charged with developing strategies to reach out to surgeons in private practice and international surgeons to communicate the value of SAGES membership with the goal of ensuring continued growth of SAGES in the future. Dr. Aurora Pryor will lead this effort.

Patient Safety

Continuing with the theme of putting the patient first, another group discussed how SAGES may work to further improve patient safety. This will be a major theme for our next President, Dr. Michael Brunt. This work group reviewed our current offerings, such as the FUSE program, and considered potential future products. The next programs will be directed by data and will use innovative educational methods to communicate these concepts to our members. It is likely that the next SAGES patient safety program will be in the area of biliary surgery, where there is great opportunity for us to make an impact.

Open to MIS

Open to MIS is an initiative started by my predecessor, Dr. Scott Melvin. The aim of this program is to encourage increased adoption of minimally invasive surgical procedures. During the retreat the working group reviewed data on the prevalence of MIS techniques in the management of gallstones, colorectal disease, bariatrics and hernia. They then discussed strategies to influence change through education, marketing and evidence of cost-effectiveness.

Quality Metrics

One of our challenges in demonstrating evidence of the benefit of what we do as MIS surgeons is developing measures of quality that can be used to provide feedback to the surgeon. Most of our traditional outcome measures, such as morbidity and mortality, length of stay, quality of life measures, and symptom scales, are very insensitive to the changes we need to show, or are impractical to be used repeatedly to chart the outcomes after surgery. A working group discussed the development of measures of outcomes after GI surgery, which are sensitive to the operations we do, patient-centered, and can be used in cost-benefit analyses. A group has been formed under the leadership of Dr. Matt Hutter, bringing together representatives from SAGES, SSAT, ASMBS, ASCRS, IPEG, and the ACS to work on this topic. It will be a challenge, but such measures are the most means to enhance the quality of what we do. SAGES is committed to be at the table and to lead this discussion.

Web Presence

Tied to our efforts to create value for our members, in addition to our outstanding annual meeting, we have taken a fresh look at our communication strategy, including the web resources, mobile (social media) communication strategies and our publications. Despite our treasure trove of content, navigating this content to easily find the resources needed has proven challenging. To address this, we will hire a librarian to catalog and classify all our enduring materials and provide them in the most user-friendly format. This will allow our members to access the material they want at the time and place when it is most useful. Our goal is to ensure that SAGES provides value to our members every day and can be the go-to organization to meet all our members’ needs all through the year.

Annual Meeting

The annual meeting is the highlight of the year for SAGES members and guests. Thanks to the efforts of our annual program chairs, Drs. Tonia Young-Fadok and Jeffrey Marks, and the Chair of the Program Committee, Dr. Daniel Herron, we have put together a program for this year’s meeting that is simply outstanding. Our theme this year is “Putting the Patient First: Promoting Innovation and Safety in the OR and Beyond.” We are delighted to welcome an astronaut physician, Dr. Dave Williams, as the Karl Storz Lecturer, and a fighter pilot, turned medical simulation expert, Dr. Amitai Ziv, as our Gerald Marks Lecturer. We will be joined this year by the Military Surgical Symposium. I invite you to look at the Advance Program and look forward to welcoming you in person in Salt Lake City in April.

Message from the President – Summer 2013

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Gerald Fried, MD SAGES President 2013-2014It is an incredible honor for me to be SAGES President. This organization is remarkable for its energy and the capacity of its members to work hard to achieve our organizational goals.

SAGES has grown enormously with the laparoscopic revolution, from its roots as a primarily flexible endoscopy society for surgeons. We are currently much more than either an endoscopy society or a laparoscopic surgical society. To some, it is the largest general surgical society in North America after the ACS. To others, it is the largest GI surgical society, or the largest surgical education society, or some combination of all of the above. To me, SAGES is a culture. It is an organization characterized by the energy, collegiality, and imagination of its members. It is unlike any organization to which I belong in allowing and encouraging young surgeons to get involved and to develop their careers. It is a true meritocracy. If you do the work, you rise in the organization.

Our challenge is to maintain the vibrancy and relevance of SAGES to each of you. Whereas the annual meeting remains the cornerstone of the society and the magnet that brings us together, SAGES is extremely active throughout the year through the work of its committees, and the vast array of programs that we offer. I encourage you to visit our website often and take full advantage of the material provided there. There is an enormous amount of added value in your membership, easily found through our website.

There are a number of new initiatives on the way. In his presidential year, Scott Melvin put together a task force called “Open to MIS” dedicated to advancing the transition of surgical care to minimal access approaches, through education of surgeons and marketing the benefits. We will keep this program growing and expand it through generating data to support the benefits of minimal access techniques.

We have several new educational programs that have been recently introduced or are in development. FUSE, championed by Steve Schwaitzberg during his presidential year and chaired by Daniel Jones, is designed to teach surgeons and nurses about the safe use of energy in the surgical environment. This will play a very central role in our efforts in the realm of patient safety, a theme that will be central to the presidency of my successor, Michael Brunt. The Hernia Task Force, under Adrian Park’s leadership is developing our first educational product that is procedure-centered rather than a more general fundamental program. This program will be truly innovative in its delivery and will keep SAGES at the peak of educational organizations, while meeting the current needs of surgeons in practice to advance their knowledge and skills. We will keep you apprised on its development in future issues of SCOPE.

The area that I have chosen to focus on is advancing the quality of surgical care through a better understanding of patient-centered outcomes and what “recovery” means to our patients. Our goal must be to combine excellent operative care with evidence-based perioperative processes, to leverage what we do in the OR to its maximal benefit. In so doing, we can generate the evidence that will move the needle from open to MIS and serve our patients best. I have established a task force that will collate the current data related to GI and abdominal surgery, educate our members in the implementation of enhanced recovery processes in their institution. The task force will also establish a research agenda to better define recovery metrics and the areas where we need to target interventions that will accelerate and enhance the recovery process for our surgical patients.

We will make a strong push to increase our membership this year. Membership is the fuel of any professional organization. This effort will be built around conveying the values that drive SAGES, the opportunities for career development, the interpersonal opportunities to network and expand the community of each of our members, and the excellent value that SAGES membership provides. We will bring this effort to residents and fellows and will extend our reach internationally. I would encourage each of you to bring two new members to SAGES this year. I know that they will thank you for years to come.

Finally, SAGES is your organization. It is essential that the SAGES leadership keep in touch with our members and respond to their needs. Please communicate your ideas to us and get involved!

SAGES Welcomes New Board Officers and President Dr. Gerald M. Fried

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Surgical Education, Quality of Care and Enhanced Patient Recovery to be Top Priorities

Gerald Fried, MD
Gerald Fried, MD
SAGES President 2013-2014

SAGES is honored to welcome Gerald M. Fried M.D. as its new president. Dr. Fried is currently the Edward W. Archibald Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at McGill University and Surgeon-in-Chief of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, where he specializes in Gastrointestinal Surgery and carries out research in surgical education and metrics of technical skills assessment, outcomes research and technology assessment.

“It is an extraordinary honor for me to take on the leadership of this outstanding organization. SAGES has made a major contribution to the advancement of surgery by minimizing the injury of surgery through innovative techniques. We are committed to ensuring the highest quality of care by breaking new ground in surgical education and by leading the partnership of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and allied health professionals in the effort to speed up recovery after surgery,” Dr. Fried said.

L. Michael Brunt, MD
L. Michael Brunt, MD
SAGES President-Elect

SAGES is proud to welcome new President-Elect Dr. L. Michael Brunt, Professor of Surgery, Director of the Minimally Invasive Fellowship Program and Co-Director of the Washington University Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Also joining the board of officers as 2nd Vice President is Dr. Adrian Park, Chair of the Department of Surgery at Anne Arundel Medical Center. Dr. Daniel J. Scott, Professor and Vice-Chairman of Education, Department of Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center is appointed to the position of Treasurer.

Additionally joining the board this year will be Dr. Tim Farrell, Division of GI Surgery, UNC at Chapel Hill, Dr. Liane Feldman, Professor of Surgery and Director of General Surgery at McGill University, Dr. Brent Matthews, Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and Dr. Kenric Murayama, Chief of the Department of Surgery at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

Daniel J. Scott, MD
Daniel J. Scott, MD
Treasurer

Adrian Park, MD
Adrian Park, MD
2nd Vice-President

Tim Farrell, MD
Tim Farrell, MD
Board of Governors

Kenric Murayama, MD
Kenric Murayama, MD
Board of Governors

Liane Feldman, MD
Liane Feldman, MD
Board of Governors