Dr. Ian Soriano has two very different memorable moments as a SAGES member: one is teaching the SAGES Global cholecystectomy course in his native Philippines with friend and mentor Dr. Horacio Asbun in 2010; and the more recent one is playing the keyboards for “Scopes Going Wild” on stage with Drs. Dave Earle, John Romanelli, Ramon Berguer and Ed Auyang at SAGES 2023 in Montreal.
For Dr. Soriano, associate professor and director of robotic surgery, Department of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), both examples illustrate the “meaningful professional and personal relationships” he’s established as a SAGES member. He adds that SAGES is his “go-to” surgical organization for post-training professional growth, teaching (at SAGES-sponsored courses) outside of UCSF, networking, and advocacy/involvement in global surgery.
Dr. Soriano has been a SAGES member since 2005, and became part of the Global Affairs committee in 2007 before becoming faculty at the International Proctoring Course in Zamboanga City, Philippines and recently a content creator and instructor with the GLAP course. He was an inaugural member of the Robotics Committee and has served as faculty in numerous resident and fellow courses. More recently, he became part of the Safe Cholecystectomy Task Force.
In addition to Drs. Raul Rosenthal and Samuel Szomstein who were his fellowship mentors and continued to support his professional growth, his other mentors include Dr. Dmitri Oleynikov when he joined the Robotic committee, and Dr. Adnan Alseidi who is now a colleague at UCSF.
Dr. Soriano earned his undergraduate and medical degrees through a combined program at the University of the Philippines and completed a residency in general surgery at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. He completed a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Prior to joining UCSF, Dr. Soriano was chief of gastrointestinal surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital and an associate professor of clinical surgery at Penn Medicine.
A recreational road cyclist for more than a decade, Dr. Soriano spends much of his non-surgical time on long bike rides, his most memorable a 105-mile group ride from Philadelphia to New York in 2015.