Congress 2022

Dear All,

We would like to thank all of you involved in our recent EFAS Congress in Edinburgh. The course had around 900 attendees and was very successful in all aspects.

Firstly, I would like to thank COFAS for an excellent session and, in particular, Mark Glazebrook for his outstanding Presidential Guest Lecture. It will live long in the memory. BOFAS provided a pre-congress course for young surgeons, which was well attended and well received. We would like to develop this further, making it a regular event before our Congress and Advanced Instructional Course. They also provided an excellent session on Saturday morning, which was informative and well received. Thank you for this contribution.

Secondly, a big thank you to the Faculty and all speakers who with great endeavor fully educated the participants with their talks. We were grateful for all your remarks and will use this feedback to make this great event even better in the future. We should particularly like to thank the Scientific Committee (Chair Manuel Monteagudo) and Education Committee (Chair Jean-luc Besse) and their members for providing an excellent programme. In addition, we look forward to working with our new Executive, Council Members and Committee Members and a big thank you to those who have left. I am sure that we shall meet again.

There were also significant contributions from our other Committees but we should particularly like to thank the Fellowship Committee (Chair Nuno Corte-Real), the Research Committee (Chair Fabian Krause) and the Foundation (Chair Victor Valderrabano) for providing the means to develop and fund our outstanding Fellowships and Prizes, presented during the meeting.

Industry was very well represented at our meeting. The Exhibition area was perfectly situated for maximum attendance during coffee and other breaks and early feedback is very encouraging. The Industry Symposia were very well attended and the EFAS members seem to have very much enjoyed these events. I would like to thank all of our sponsors, in particular, our gold and silver for their contribution and am looking forward to future successes together.

Kind regards,

Don McBride
Immediate Past President EFAS

Dear EFAS members,

The Edinburgh conference has turned out to be a great congress showing that EFAS is strong as ever. After the COVID period it was good to see each other again and exchange science, knowledge and experience on and off the podia. A big thank you for this achievement to Don, Manuel and the whole Scientific Committee, and to our secretariat. It always strikes me that EFAS is a big group of friends, where everybody can find their place.

The council is renewed. It is always sad to say goodbye to diligent Council Members that have worked for 2 to 4 years. Thank you, Beat, Christina, Geoffroy and Johnny. I would like to thank Yves who has served EFAS for all this year in Council and as our President. He guided me and has become a real friend.
A big welcome to the new council, I’m looking forward to working with them to make the society even stronger. The council once again has a diverse background proving that it really represents the European Spirit of the Society.

We have a new Honorary Secretary, Joris Hermus and a new President-Elect, Manfred Thomas. Together with Don McBride, our Past President, and Xavier Martin our Treasurer, there is a dynamic executive officers’ group. We will have some challenges in the future, but I’m confident that we will manage.
Already we have engaged a liaison secretary that will help us build up the courses and will be the spokesperson in between MCO congress, the Specimen lab committee, the companies and the local national host.
The EFAS Certification program is becoming an important sign of recognition in our field of expertise. The Fellowship programs are also running extremely well, and the Journal’s impact factor climbs again.

Diversity is certainly an important topic to work on in our Society. We have so many talented people in between our members, and we should try to engage them in EFAS.
We had a constructive meeting during the congress with the presidents of the National Societies and I hope that I can put some of their ideas into practice.
We also should try to expand our European dynamism to the countries that are not part of EFAS and even try to help countries that do not belong or have access to a Global Society. In this way we can spread the education and knowledge in our field of expertise for the benefit of our patients, which is the main goal of EFAS. All of our effort is directed to improving the standard of care for our patients. EFAS is a big ship, but the course is certainly in the good direction. I’m proud to start my presidency for this society and will do my best to serve EFAS the best I can.

Kind regards,