What a privilege to become president of the Royal Belgian Society for Surgery. I am a hernia surgeon. Yes indeed. Specialized in abdominal wall surgery. Doing just that. Yes, that is a thing. Becoming president of our overarching surgical Belgian society feels like an important step in the recognition of our sub-specialty. Thank you.
The surgical landscape is changing rapidly with more surgeons focusing on a limited field of the surgical spectrum and the "general surgeon" working alone slowly disappearing because of centralization of care into specialized hospitals or between surgeons within surgical teams. Larger surgical groups allow for a better work-life balance and for a higher volume of specific surgical diseases allowing for more dedicated up-to-date patient care.
Training the future generation of surgeons is the next challenge for our profession. How to train within the working time restrictions? How to determine the number of surgeons needed? And the number needed for specific subspecialities? How many years should we train before getting into a subspeciality trajectory?
One of the privileges of being president of RBSS is to organize the yearly congress of the society aka Belgian Surgical Week. Since the renovation of the Thermae Palace hotel is postponed for another year, we are happy to meet again April 24th -26th 2025 in Ostend. The theme will be: "The Impact of patient/surgeon gender on surgical outcome". Surely a theme that can inspire and create interesting discussions. See you all there.
Filip Muysoms MD PhD Abdominal wall surgeon AZ Maria Middelares Gent & Sint Vincentius Deinze
President of the Royal Belgian Surgical Society 2024-2025
Since 2017, you can sign up as a member through our website.
Membership of the RBSS includes: free subscription to the online version of the Acta Chirurgica Belgica (if a printed version is required, a sum of 70,00 € needs to be asked), free attendance to all postgraduate courses of the RBSS’ sections, free access to the RBSS website, reduced registration fee at the annual Belgian Surgical Week.
After registration, your membership application will have to be ratified during the General Assembly of the Society, according to the bylaws of the Society. In the meantime you can already enjoy all benefits related to your RBSS membership status.
To be promoted to a titular membership equalling the status of 'fellow of the Royal Belgian Society for Surgery, you have to be ordinary member for at least 3 years, have at least one oral communication during the Belgian Surgical Week and have published at least one article in the Acta Chirurgica Belgica as first or last author.
Apply for block BAST-RBSS Membership when you are still in training and want to become member of RBSS as well as BAST (Belgian Association of Surgical Trainees).
Apply for asenior RBSS membershipwhen you are retired but still wnat to particpate in the activities of the society.
Apply for an extra-ordinary membership when you are a non-surgeon or not eligible to become an RBSS member but want to participate in eg. the History section.
If you are new to the RBSS.be-website, check our FAQ section on how to signup for society membership or sections!