Dr. Laura Fischer initially joined SAGES as a resident at the University of Wisconsin after Dr. Jacob Greenberg told her it was the “best national organization” for minimally invasive surgeons. When Dr. Fischer joined the University of Oklahoma in 2016, she was the only fellowship-trained MIS surgeon and remembers that without local mentorship, she really leaned on the SAGES community for support and feedback.
With that support and mentors like Dr. Greenberg over the last several years, Dr. Fischer has been both an active member and integral part of the SAGES Global Affairs Committee.
Since “bugging” the Global Affairs’ previous co-chair Dr. Jeff Hazey to be selected to the committee, she’s been heavily involved in writing the GLAP manual. She’s also traveling with other committee members to Mexico and other countries as part of a curriculum teaching group. Under current chair Linda Zhang during COVID, much of the curriculum has been taught virtually, though Dr. Fischer does plan to be part of a group traveling to Rwanda this year.
She also plans to attend SAGES 2022 in Denver where she says, “It will be hard for me to choose what to sessions to attend live because all of them include such great content—which is what I most enjoy about the annual meeting.”
Never having missed a meeting, Dr. Fischer’s most treasured memory was her participation in the Pioneers of Foregut Surgery session at the 2019 meeting in Baltimore. There she was introduced as a “rising star” who interviewed previous SAGES president Dr. John Hunter, which you can view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dVv_ley78.
Dr. Fischer, whose non-surgical talents include boxing and speaking proficient Mandarin, says that looking ahead, she’d like to be involved with other SAGES committees and take advantage of all the educational and relationship opportunities the society offers.