Dear E-AHPBA members,
It has been a successful start to 2019 for the Association with many highlights to report on.
The year commenced with a hugely successful E-AHPBA Gold Seal Post Graduate Course Pancreatic Cancer hosted in Athens, Greece and chaired by me and Professor Ajith Siriwardena, E-AHPBA Programme Committee Chair. I would like to personally thank the Invited Speakers who travelled to Athens and contributed to an extensive programme working towards preparing our younger members for the UEMS HPB exam. To read more regarding the course please read Professor Passas’ article detailed within the newsletter.
This was the second Gold Seal Post Graduate Course to be held within the region since the introduction of the E-AHPBA Education Pyramid programme, if you are interested in hosting a Gold or Platinum Seal course within your country or would like more information regarding the Education programme structure then I would encourage you to listen to Professor Xavier Rogiers, E-AHPBA Education Chair explain the structure in more detail.
The next E-AHPBA course will be the Platinum Seal Post Graduate Course in Amsterdam, for more information and to register for the course please click here. This will be followed by the Gold Seal Post Graduate Course in Guadalajara, Spain. Keep an eye on the website for the programme which will be launched shortly as well as other courses to be announced soon.
Of course, the next event is the highlight within the HPB calendar, the E-AHPBA 2019 Congress will be held in Amsterdam from the 2nd to the 5th June 2019. Over 700 abstracts were received which has helped contribute to what will be an outstanding Scientific Programme. I would encourage as many of you as possible to attend. Professor Olivier Busch, Chair of the Local Organising Committee, has kindly provided an update on the congress progress which you can read further on within this newsletter (link to article), to register please click here.
Membership has continued to grow, and the E-AHPBA 2019 Congress and Educational Courses will help to support member development. We have seen the formation of the Israeli, Belgium and Polish Chapter and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all new members from these Chapters to the Association.
As this will be my last article for the E-AHPBA newsletter as E-AHPBA President I would like to take this opportunity to thank the E-AHPBA Council and Committees for their support and commitment over the past two years and of course thank you all for your ongoing commitment to the E-AHPBA. The growth and development over the past two years has been outstanding and I will look forward to seeing the initiatives introduced grow from strength to strength in the years to come.
I will look forward to welcoming you all to Amsterdam in June.
Best wishes,
Christos Dervenis
E-AHPBA President
