The ELSA 2015 news: creating the future from the great legacy
Endoscopic and laparoscopic surgeons of Asia
Under the tranquil, comfortable and pleasant atmosphere, everything on the congress site was well-organized. The 12th Asia-Pacific Congress of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgery (ELSA 2015) was officially held in Daegu, Korea from September 2nd to 5th, 2015. This is one of the most important congresses in Asia-pacific region in the field of endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery held every year since 1993 in Singapore.
The opening ceremony was held at dusk on September 2nd, 2015. In the ceremony, the attendances experienced traditional Korean culture in Daegu and received the warm welcome from the Korean (Figure 1). “Mould-breaking outputs in both basic and clinical researches opened new avenues for cure together with impressive byproducts in opening cost-effective care routes. The ELSA shall serve as the most reliable platform interfacing clinicians and patients with up-to-date medical technologies. I would like to assure you all that I will do my best not to let anybody in our community to be drowned in the daily swirl of information and messages.” Prof. Hong-Jin Kim, the congress president, addressed (Figure 2).
The ELSA 2015 congress gathered more than 1,900 attendances from 35 countries, including multitudinous seminars focused on gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, gynecological, thoracic and urological surgery. The aim of ELSA is to facilitate exchange of advanced technology in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery, share the latest academic information and discuss the clinical cases among the experts from different countries. On the congress, four different sections have been set up including Symposium, Free Paper, Meet the Professor and State of Art. Each section, with its distinctive features, attracted many attendances onsite.
On September 2nd, Postgraduate Course section was on the agenda. In this section, the postgraduates shared and discussed their research studies with the audience. That was a valuable opportunity for the postgraduates to express their opinions and learn from the leading experts in the related field. They could also communicate with the audience onsite to have a further discussion based on the studies. The editor also noticed that every time when a speaker finished his talk and moved to the discussion part, quite a few audiences would stand up and express their opinions on the discussed topics. More often after the whole Postgraduate Course section, these passionate scholars would still stay in the conference hall to further discuss the studies they are interested in. People have got to admire their enthusiasm for academic (Figure 3).
The congress was formally held on September 3rd to 5th, 2015. Distinctively, to share the Chinese experience on endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery, our Chinese team also made many excellent speeches on the ELSA 2015. The team led by Prof. Changming Huang made 14 masterful speeches on the congress; Prof. Bo Feng, delegated by Prof. Minhua Zheng, made a report on Right Hemicolectomy-Mediacal approach in GI Symposium Section; Prof. Kai Wang was awarded the Travel Grant for his abstract entitled “Application of unidirectional barbed suture in laparoscopic common bile duct exploration and primary suture: a retrospective cohort study”; Prof. Yanjun Liu, Prof. Daguang Wang and Prof. Changqing Jing reported the studies on laparoscopic surgery in gastrointestinal disease in the Free Paper Section and Prof. Jianqiang Tang firstly reported the study “Laparoscopic Total Pelvic Exenteration for Pelvic Malignancies: The Technique and Short-time Outcome of 8 Cases” on the international congress. Their outstanding performance made more experts hear the voice of China (Figure 4).
The editorial team also attended the ELSA 2015 in Daegu to exhibit the Translational Gastrointestinal Cancer (TGC) journal and provide series reports. On this congress, except acquainted with the updated development in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery, the editors also seized this precious opportunity to communicate with our distinguished editorial board members, authors and readers. In the 2015 ELSA, the editors were honor to meet the TGC editorial members Prof. Abe Fingerhut from Medical University of Graz, Austria; Prof. Seung Ho Choi and Prof. Chang Moo Kang from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea; Prof. Sang-Uk Han and Dr. Sang-Uk Han from Ajou University, Korea (Figure 5). Talking with these experienced experts, the editors learn that although they are from different countries and speaking different language, they all have the same goal. That is patients-oriented surgery.
Just as the Prof. Hong-Jin Kim said, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.” We sincerely hope that the future Asia-Pacific Congress of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgery will insist in her mission and object, and share the updated technology and information to the most surgeons. The editor also delighted to learn that the 15th World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery (WCES 2016), in conjunction with Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia 2016 (ELSA 2016) and the 15th Chinese National Congress of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery (CSLES 2016), will be held in Shanghai-Suzhou, China during the autumn of 2016. Let us look forward to another great future in endoscopic and laparoscopic field creating from China!
Acknowledgements
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Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
