• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

SAGES

Reimagining surgical care for a healthier world

  • Home
    • COVID-19 Annoucements
    • Search
    • SAGES Home
    • SAGES Foundation Home
  • About
    • Who is SAGES?
    • SAGES Mission Statement
    • Advocacy
    • Strategic Plan, 2020-2023
    • Committees
      • Request to Join a SAGES Committee
      • SAGES Board of Governors
      • Officers and Representatives of the Society
      • Committee Chairs and Co-Chairs
      • Full Committee Rosters
      • SAGES Past Presidents
    • Donate to the SAGES Foundation
    • Awards
      • George Berci Award
      • Pioneer in Surgical Endoscopy
      • Excellence In Clinical Care
      • International Ambassador
      • IRCAD Visiting Fellowship
      • Social Justice and Health Equity
      • Excellence in Community Surgery
      • Distinguished Service
      • Early Career Researcher
      • Researcher in Training
      • Jeff Ponsky Master Educator
      • Excellence in Medical Leadership
      • Barbara Berci Memorial Award
      • Brandeis Scholarship
      • Advocacy Summit
      • RAFT Annual Meeting Abstract Contest and Awards
  • Meetings
    • NBT Innovation Weekend
    • SAGES Annual Meeting
      • 2023 Scientific Session Call For Abstracts
      • 2023 Emerging Technology Call For Abstracts
    • CME Claim Form
    • Industry
      • Advertising Opportunities
      • Exhibit Opportunities
      • Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Future Meetings
    • Past Meetings
      • SAGES 2022
      • SAGES 2021
    • Related Meetings Calendar
  • Join SAGES!
    • Membership Benefits
    • Membership Applications
      • Active Membership
      • Affiliate Membership
      • Associate Active Membership
      • Candidate Membership
      • International Membership
      • Medical Student Membership
    • Member News
      • Member Spotlight
      • Give the Gift of SAGES Membership
  • Patients
    • Healthy Sooner – Patient Information for Minimally Invasive Surgery
    • Patient Information Brochures
    • Choosing Wisely – An Initiative of the ABIM Foundation
    • All in the Recovery: Colorectal Cancer Alliance
    • Find a SAGES Member
  • Publications
    • SAGES Stories Podcast
    • SAGES Clinical / Practice / Training Guidelines, Statements, and Standards of Practice
    • Patient Information Brochures
    • TAVAC – Technology and Value Assessments
    • Surgical Endoscopy and Other Journal Information
    • SAGES Manuals
    • SCOPE – The SAGES Newsletter
    • COVID-19 Annoucements
    • Troubleshooting Guides
  • Education
    • OpiVoid.org
    • SAGES.TV Video Library
    • Safe Cholecystectomy Program
      • Safe Cholecystectomy Didactic Modules
    • Masters Program
      • SAGES Facebook Program Collaboratives
      • Acute Care Surgery
      • Bariatric
      • Biliary
      • Colorectal
      • Flexible Endoscopy (upper or lower)
      • Foregut
      • Hernia
      • Robotics
    • Educational Opportunities
    • HPB/Solid Organ Program
    • Courses for Residents
      • Advanced Courses
      • Basic Courses
    • Video Based Assessments (VBA)
    • Robotics Fellows Course
    • MIS Fellows Course
    • Facebook Livestreams
    • Free Webinars For Residents
    • SMART Enhanced Recovery Program
    • SAGES OR SAFETY Video
    • SAGES at Cine-Med
      • SAGES Top 21 MIS Procedures
      • SAGES Pearls
      • SAGES Flexible Endoscopy 101
      • SAGES Tips & Tricks of the Top 21
  • Opportunities
    • NEW-Area of Concentrated Training Seal (ACT)-Advanced Flexible Endoscopy-Coming Soon!
    • SAGES Fellowship Certification for Advanced GI MIS and Comprehensive Flexible Endoscopy
    • Multi-Society Foregut Fellowship Certification
    • SAGES Research Opportunities
    • Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery
    • Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery
    • Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy
    • Job Board
    • SAGES Go Global: Global Affairs and Humanitarian Efforts
  • Search
    • Search All SAGES Content
    • Search SAGES Guidelines
    • Search the Video Library
    • Search the Image Library
    • Search the Abstracts Archive
  • Store
    • “Unofficial” Logo Products
  • Log In

A Message from the SAGES President

March 23, 2020 by SAGES Webmaster

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

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp
  • Reddit

Related

Filed Under: Blog, COVID-19, President Posts Tagged With: aurora, coronavirus, covid-19, pryor, recommendations, statements

Contact SAGES

Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
11300 W. Olympic Blvd Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064 USA
webmaster@sages.org
Tel: (310) 437-0544

Find Us Around the Web!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Important Links

SAGES 2023 Meeting Information

Healthy Sooner: Patient Information

SAGES Guidelines, Statements, & Standards of Practice

SAGES Manuals

 

  • taTME Study Info
  • Foundation
  • SAGES.TV
  • MyCME
  • Educational Activities

Copyright © 2023 Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons