Dear Members
With the IHPBA 2018 behind us, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the developments during the congress and analyse it from the EAHPBA perspective. The EAHPBA should be proud of the members and their contributions to the success of the IHPBA 2018. It was clear that the contribution within the umbrella of the IHPBA was significant. We would also like to thank Professor Pierre-Alain Clavien for his hard work in putting together a truly successful meeting.
Extremely fruitful and healthy discussions were held at the strategic planning meeting for the year ahead. Our next congress in Amsterdam is exciting and a what was evident, is that the local organising committee is working extremely hard to make this meeting not only successful from the scientific programme perspective but also from the information technology perspective. A mobile app has already been created and will be used at the meeting. If successful, it is possible that this platform may be adopted and utilised at future congresses.
The scientific programme was finalised under the leadership of Professor Ajith Siriwardena and invitations to speak have already been sent out.
Our vision for the next year would be to ensure that the needs of the younger members are addressed in terms of registration for future postgraduate courses, developing an E-AHPBA education forum on the myHPB section of the IHPBA website and ensuring that we are bringing new members into the fold. A strong focus is on ensuring that gender equality is maintained and that all respective committees are well represented.
There are many committees working exciting new projects. As you would have noticed that there has been an appeal for people who are members and want to be involved to please volunteer. It is an excellent opportunity to network with the leaders in the field of HPB and be part of the future of the organisation.
The UEMS exams were successfully held in Geneva and Professor Xavier Rogiers and Professor Kevin Conlon are to be congratulated on putting such a successful exam together. We would also, once again, like to congratulate all the successful candidates and wish them well in their future endeavours. We hope that they would all consider playing an active role in the organisation.
One of the highlights of the congress was to see our past president Professor Martin Smith now stepping up to head the IHPBA as president and lead us into the next two years. It is wonderful to see members of our executive committee taking lead roles within the IHPBA. We would like to congratulate Professor Martin Smith on this wonderful achievement and wish him well with the task ahead.
We look forward to 2019 and hope to engage with our members in a more vibrant way. We look forward to hearing from you and your response to future surveys will be extremely helpful.
Sincerely yours,
John Devar
