SGS President's Corner

Greetings from Minnesota! Spring has arrived (and if it has arrived here, you’ve likely already been enjoying it for a while!!). It is an honor to serve as your SGS President and to greet you with my first “Presidential Corner”. I hope you enjoyed another great SGS meeting in San Antonio. Congratulations to Past President Vivian Sung, MD, and 2017 Scientific Program Chair, Robert Gutman, MD, on an outstanding and engaging educational meeting and a fabulous Texas Hoe Down! SGS continues to flourish: record breaking meeting attendance, 18 new members inducted into the society, strong financial support for the SHARE program and development of the new Pelvic Anatomy Group which is supported by the new John O.L. DeLancey Fund. What a great way to honor one of our most distinguished members and to advance the understanding of pelvic anatomy and function to our members and beyond. I’d also like to thank our Industry partners for their continued support of our mission. Drew Cassidenti, MD, the 2018 Scientific Program Chair is hard at work finalizing next year’s program which will continue to focus on advancing gynecologic surgery, research, ways to take care of yourself and your practice. The Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, FL will serve as our meeting destination and I encourage you to make plans to attend and enjoy all that Orlando has to offer.

SGS is a unique and special society representing all disciplines within gynecologic surgery. The uniqueness of state of the art research in gynecologic surgery combined with member focused critique of that research has always been a special part of the SGS meeting. The requirement of members to be voted into the society has special meaning. The unique combination of science and social activities throughout the meeting is another special attribute of SGS. To offer all of that, with the unique ability to interact with surgical mentors and “top surgeons” within gynecologic surgery in a cozy and intimate setting is the hallmark of attending an SGS meeting. It feels welcoming and interactive and all under one roof!

Our society continues to be a leader in supporting research and especially fellowship network research. The Fellow’s Pelvic Research Network (FPRN)® continues to be a flagship program for our society and has led to collaboration with other societies including AUGS and AAGL. Our Systematic Review Group (SRG) is another proud product of SGS, providing relevant data analysis and guidelines for clinical decision making. Beyond that the society continues to have active collaboration with multiple societies to develop policy and provide practice guidelines for gynecologic surgery. Lastly, to help educate gynecologic surgeons SGS has offered a Winter Postgraduate Course for the last 25 years. Dr. Kris Strohbehn has done a great job leading this effort over the last decade – thank you Kris! The course is now in the very capable hands of Dr. Rosanne Kho who is leading a wonderful course in Miami later this year – plan to attend!

Thank you for your support of SGS and its mission. I encourage you to get involved in SGS and look forward to seeing you in Florida for our PG course later this year and our annual scientific meeting next March. Be well.

John Gebhart, MD