Dear UCSF Naffziger Society Members,
As my term comes to an end, I want to take this opportunity to thank the membership for honoring me as President of the UCSF Naffziger Surgical Society. With the start of a new academic year upon us, Dr. Wen Shen, will be succeeding me as your next President. With that, I’d like to conclude my term with a number of announcements.
Dr. Nancy Ascher Stepping Down as Department Chair
Nancy L. Ascher, M.D., Ph.D. has announced she will be stepping down as Chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery at the end of the 2015-16 academic year, a position she has held since 1999. She will remain as Chair until her successor is named and assumes the leadership mantle. Dr. Ascher, a world-renowned transplant surgeon, is the holder of two Distinguished Professorships: the Isis Distinguished Professor in Transplantation and the Leon Goldman, MD Distinguished Professor in Surgery. Dr. Ascher has also had a distinguished career in public service including appointments to the Presidential Task Force on Organ Transplantation and the Surgeon General’s Task Force on Increasing Donor Organs.
The UCSF Department of Surgery will be hosting a reception honoring Dr. Ascher on Saturday, July 2nd, from 7:00PM to 9:00PM, at the 5th Floor Rooftop Pavilion and Sculpture Garden of the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Numerous tributes and expressions of gratitude have been posted to the on-line “Comment Wall.” We have posted them here for you to read.
UCSF Department of Surgery Chief Resident Dinner
The annual dinner honoring the 2015-16 graduating Chief Residents of the General Surgery Residency Program was held on Friday, June 3, 2016 atop The Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in the Alexandria Room. After an introduction by the Department Chair, Dr. Nancy Ascher, the Chief Residents were separately introduced by Linda M. Reilly, M.D, Program Director, Lygia Stewart, M.D., Associate Program Director, and Ryutaro Hirose, M.D., Associate Program Director. The Chiefs gave riveting talks about their life experiences and journeys through medical school and residency, culminating with graduation.
Joy Walker will remain at UCSF as an ACGME Clinical fellow in Vascular Surgery; Rebecca Maine will move to the University of Washington for a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship; Emily Huang has accepted an appointment as a Clinical Instructor in General Surgery at UCSF; Shareef Syed will remain at UCSF, taking a position as a Clinical Fellow in the Abdominal Transplant Fellowship Program; Lucy Kornblith will remain at UCSF as a Surgical Critical Care Fellow in the Department of Surgery at Zuckerberg SFGH; Carolyn Seib will remain at UCSF as a Clinical Fellow in Endocrine Surgery and Cerene Jeanty will enter private practice at St. Mary’s Medical Center and St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.
Naffziger Annual Meeting, Postgraduate Course & Chief Resident Dinner
Annual Meeting
The Naffziger Annual Meeting and Business Lunch was held on Thursday, May 12th at the Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel in San Francisco. The recent nominations by the Executive Council of James Gardner, M.D., Ph.D., to serve as Chief Resident Representative, and Kelly Mahuron, M.D. to serve as Resident Research Representative, were ratified by the membership.
The Society also acknowledged the passing of the following members: John Q. Owsley, MD, 1960; Donald L. Morton, MD, 1966; James A. Bulen, MD, 1955; Fraser M. Keith, MD, Associate Member; Paul H. Trotta, MD, 1958; William L. Weirich, MD, 1958; and Herbert S. Mooney, Jr. MD, 1965. There were reminiscences of their lives and careers followed by a moment of silence.
Postgraduate Course in Hernia Surgery
This year’s program, hosted by the UCSF Department of Surgery and the Naffziger Society, and co-chaired by Hobart W. Harris, MD, MPH and myself, focused on hernia surgery and complex abdominal wall reconstruction. The program was highly informative and very well-attended. Featured speakers included Carlos A. Pellegrini, MD, FACS, FRCSI (Hon.), Naffziger Visting Professor; Guilherme M. Campos, MD, FACS, Naffziger Invited Lecturer; and Robert G. Martindale, MD, PhD, Postgraduate Course Keynote Speaker.
Dinner Honoring Chief Residents
The Chief Resident dinner was held on Friday, May 13th at One Market in San Francisco. To honor their accomplishments and fulfillment of a major milestone in their careers, namely graduation from the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program, each Chief Resident was presented with: 1) An engraved Naffziger Certificate of Lifetime Membership, 2) “The History of the Surgical Service at San Francisco General Hospital” by William Schecter, Robert Lim, George Sheldon, Norman Christensen, and William Blaisdell, and 3) An individually engraved Chief Resident Chair (to be shipped to each resident in the days following the ceremony).
During the dinner, Dr. Haile T. Debas gave a personal and inspiring lecture to the Chief Residents entitled, “The Uncertain Beginnings Of A Surgical Career”. Dr. Debas is a former Chair of the Department of Surgery (1987-2003); former Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine (1993 – 2003); former UCSF Chancellor; Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Emeritus; Director of the University of California Global Health Institute; and Founding Executive Director of UCSF Global Health Sciences (GHS),
Dr. Debas will always be my hero!
In Closing
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your President for the 2015-16 academic year. I’d also like to again thank my fellow Executive Council members for their support, and the Naffziger staff, Annette Bronstein, Executive Secretary, and Richard Barg, Director of Online Operations, for their tirelessand amazing dedication to the administrative affairs of the Society.
Sincerely,
Laurence F. Yee, MD, FACS, FASCRS