Dear Colleagues,
First of all I would like to thank you for the confidence and trust you have placed in me to fulfill the position of President of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery.
In the coming years, major assignments will need to be further developed.
Firstly, all involved associations, be they scientific of professional, will need to finalize the reform in Belgian surgical training. To this date, considerable advancement has been made in a convivial and positive climate. I sincerely hope that this can be continued so as to reach a definite model of national surgical training.
In 2018, the Society will celebrate its 125th anniversary. The event will be marked at the next Belgian Surgical Week (3rd – 5th May 2018). A Golden Book, dedicated to the history of Belgian surgery and written by Professors R. Van Hee and P. Mendes da Costa, will be published. Since the creation of our Society, we have been inundated with new surgical technologies.
All along, surgical progress has been unbelievable. Starting off as a craftsmanship whereby the scalpel and the hand were the most important operating instruments it has evolved, thanks to the digital revolution, to a highly technological science whereby complex and expensive instruments have been developed. These advances have drastically changed modern surgery.
Bearing this in mind, next year’s congress shall therefore be dedicated to the theme ‘THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY”.
At today’s rate of change, surgeons will see not one, but many revolutions during their career – the practice of surgery is changing faster than at any time in the past.
Training, financing as well as concentration of heavy pathologies and networking will certainly be matters of concern for our young surgeons.
In the light of the above mentioned facts, I believe that all surgeons and trainees in our country need to join hands for the sake of persisting the development of a future-orientated surgery.
With best regards,
Prof. Dr. J. Lamote
President of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery
2017-2018