The highlights of last year’s meeting at San Francisco General Hospital included “Grand Rounds” presentations on multiple topics given by Dr. Blaisdell’s “Trauma Team”. This was followed by a surgical morbidity and mortality conference, chaired by Dr. Donald Trunkey, with presentations of case reports from the 70s. At the evening dinner, the chief residents were individually introduced with their biographies. The contributions of Dr. J. Englebert Dunphy were recognized and honored with a presentation by Dr. Frank Lewis.
I am honored to be writing to you today as your President for the current term. I give my heartfelt and sincere thanks to my colleagues on the Executive Council, A. Brent Eastman Vice-President and President Elect of the Naffziger Society and Secretary-Treasurer James Constant, M.D., for their dedicated service and support to the Society.
Naffziger Society Website
Today, we have launched a new website, Naffzigersociety.com, which showcases the great work the Society performs. The site includes:
Pages detailing the rich and storied history of the UCSF Department of Surgery and the Naffziger society
A roster of members and online biographies
A password-protected member page with contact information
A news feed comprised of outstanding accomplishments of our members
Annual meeting agendas and as well as highlights and photographs from last year’s meeting.
The ability to donate directly to the Society through a simple an easy-to-use interface linked directly to its account
We will also use the site to inform the membership about details of upcoming meetings and for collaborative purposes such as online newsletters, made possible by an optimized mailing list of content.
Many thanks to Colin Fahrion, manager of the UCSF Pediatric Surgery and Fetal Treatment Center sites, for his work in designing and developing the Naffziger site and to Richard N. Barg, Director of Web Strategy and Development for the Department of Surgery, for his work developing the content and stitching together the information architecture.
Membership Survey
Members conveyed the sentiment that their successful careers were directly related to the training that they received at UCSF. As a measure of gratitude, they expressed a desire to give something back through the Society by providing support for the next generation of UCSF surgeons. Following the survey, the number of duespaying members increased significantly! The responses also expressed enthusiasm for the our annual meetings, both to promote professional and personal interactions with fellow trainees and for the opportunity to interact directly with the current residents.
Changes to Bylaws
Under the leadership of F. William Blaisdell, many changes were made to the Naffziger Surgical Society. The bylaws were rewritten to reflect the primary purpose of the society as assisting the UCSF Department of Surgery with the educational advancement of its residents. A new meeting format was developed and implemented with a day of presentations followed by an evening dinner honoring the current UCSF chief residents.
2011 Meeting
The highlights of last year’s meeting at San Francisco General Hospital included “Grand Rounds” presentations on multiple topics given by Dr. Blaisdell’s “Trauma Team”. This was followed by a surgical morbidity and mortality conference, chaired by Dr. Donald Trunkey, with presentations of case reports from the 70s. At the evening dinner, the chief residents were individually introduced with their biographies. The contributions of Dr. J. Englebert Dunphy were recognized and honored with a presentation by Dr. Frank Lewis.
Agenda of 2012 Meeting
I am pleased to report to you that the next meeting of the Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society will be held on Friday, June 1, 2012. Based on the success of last year’s program and the positive feedback received, we have decided to remain separate from the UCSF Postgraduate Course again this year. The program will focus on the decade of the 1980’s in UCSF surgical history. We will be recognizing and honoring two living legends of the Surgery Department, who both made great contributions during that era.
We are planning to have a series of presentations given by distinguished graduates of the program from the 80’s and the topics chosen should be of interest to members in all specialties. The program will be held at the new Mission Bay campus and site of the future UCSF Hospital. We anticipate that there will be an opportunity to tour the Mission Bay campus.
Our evening dinner program will be held in the private dining room at Farallon, a four star restaurant in downtown San Francisco. I hope that you will mark the date and make every effort to attend. For those who are coming from a distance and planning to stay over the weekend, we hope to be able to offer assistance with arranging your weekend activities by providing recommendations
Thank you for allowing me to serve as your President this term. I look forward to seeing you at the June 1, 2012 Meeting and Dinner.
John P. Roberts, M.D., Professor and Chief of Transplant Surgery and the Organ Transplant Service at UCSF, has been elected President of the National Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Board of Directors. Roberts will serve a one-year term beginning in late June 2012.
“Neither man had a donor who was a match. But each had a family member willing to donate a kidney to a stranger, allowing them all to be part of chain which would, in turn, give Baty and Cienfuegos kidneys from other strangers. With 17 participating hospitals in 11 states, the chain consisted of 30 people willing to give up their kidney, matched with 30 more who needed one to survive. UCSF surgeons Andrew Posselt, M.D., Ph.D. and Ryutaro Hirose, M.D., performed the transplants on Baty and Cienfuegos – just two of the 300 or so kidney transplants performed at UCSF every year.”
“Diana L. Farmer, an internationally renowned fetal and neonatal surgeon, has been named chair of the Department of Surgery at UC Davis Health System. Farmer is known for her skilled surgical treatment of congenital anomalies and for her expertise in cancer, airway and intestinal surgeries in newborns. She is principal investigator of several National Institutes of Health clinical trials on the effectiveness and safety of spina bifida treatments before birth, and she is researching a novel stem cell therapy for repairing damaged neural tissue in spina bifida patients….Farmer comes to UC Davis from UC San Francisco, where she was chief of pediatric surgery, vice chair of surgery, surgeon-in-chief of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and a professor of surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. ”
The UCSF Bariatric Surgery Center, led by Stanley J. Rogers, M.D., has been accredited by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as a Level 1 Accredited Bariatric Center (ACS BSCN). The American College of Surgeons Bariatric Surgery Center Network Accreditation Program (ACS BSCN) accredits facilities in the United States that have undergone an independent, voluntary and rigorous peer evaluation in accordance with nationally recognized bariatric surgical standards. This adds to the prestige of the program which previously also earned the Blue Distinction for Bariatric Surgery from Blue Shield of California and was designated a Blue Cross “Center of Expertise Hospital for bariatric surgery.
Edward Kim, M.D. will be among the recipients of 2011 Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educator’s Excellence in Teaching Awards at the Academy’s annual Celebration on Monday, September 19, 2011. The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators is dedicated to creating an environment that enhances the status of teachers at UCSF, promotes and rewards teaching excellence, fosters curricular innovation and encourages scholarship in medical education.
“The far-reaching implications were made painfully clear” in an eloquent and moving essay in the New England Journal of Medicine by John Maa, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist Program. A national leader in improving emergency care, “Dr. Maa describes the all-too-familiar story of a 69-year-old woman who is admitted to the E.R. for a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat. Her operation is delayed because she has to board for a full day while waiting for a real bed. During the delay, she suffers a major stroke and dies…………The woman, we learn, was the author’s mother.” — Excerpt from NY Times article by noted physician-journalist Dr. Pauline Chen
Warren Gasper, M.D., junior fellow in the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and a member of the research lab of Christopher Owens M.D., was awarded first prize in the poster competition at the annual meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) for the posterPercutaneous Peri-Adventitial Guanethidine Delivery Induces Renal Artery Sympathectomy: Preclinical Experience and Implication for Refractory Hypertension. One hundred researchers competed worldwide for the honor. The President and President-Elect of SVS, and an audience of vascular surgeons, choose the winner after viewing PowerPoint presentations from the ten finalists.
Linda M. Reilly, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery at UCSF, has been inducted into the prestigious “Society of Scholars”. Established in 1967 by Johns Hopkins University, the Society recognizes individuals whose careers began at Hopkins, and later rose to prominence in their fields through distinguished achievement. Dr. Reilly has the additional distinction of being the first woman to complete the General Surgery Residency program at Hopkins, one of the most storied in the country. She is now Director of a similarly distinguished program at UCSF. An outstanding and compassionate physician, Dr. Reilly is also Principal Investigator in a number of clinical trials focused on the improvement of devices and refinement of surgical technique in endovascular repair of complex aortic aneurysms. She is widely-respected for her clinical investigations that have led to numerous advances in treatment and improvements in patient outcomes.
