President’s Message

My fellow AAGL Members, I am honored to begin my year as president of this great organization representing you, our ever-stronger, fully committed, increasingly diverse membership.

Just this past November, I witnessed the depth and power of our numbers at the 47^th AAGL Global Congress in Las Vegas. With more than 2100 attendees, over 40% of whom came from outside the U.S., we can truly say we are a global organization! It is a gift to lead this society of gynecologic surgeons who are each doing their part to better the surgical care of all women.

Even more recently, I met with the Board of Directors in New York in January, for our first meeting of the New Year. I can assure you that our membership is well-represented by this enthusiastic group of individuals. Our meeting was incredibly productive, and we have a lot of exciting plans and initiatives which we are all very eager to share with you over the coming months!

A perfect example of the Board’s progress is the newly revitalized Research Committee.  This group will carefully review and develop protocols for the implementation of clinical research, including prospective and cohort studies and multi-center randomized trials.  I am looking forward to insightful input and development of research projects from this committee and remind you that we are now accepting vision statements (no more than 500 words) and CV’s from those members interested in serving this committee. If you would like to be considered, please send your materials to Linda Michels lmichels@aagl.org by March 10, 2019.

We continue to make enormous strides in the EMIG validation process. A new committee has been formed to guide the business development of the EMIG program which will follow through on the Board’s recommendation for implementation of the EMIG Cognitive Exam, Curriculum, and Skills Test by guiding the EMIG development team. We are very close to reaching our EMIG goals, I am looking forward to sharing great EMIG news this year!

I began this message by reflecting on our last Global Congress. I’d love to finish by turning your attention ahead to some of the very incredible educational opportunities we have coming this year. I will list them below and point out that the beauty of an online magazine is that I can include clickable links to help you learn more about each meeting and to sign up! I hope to see many of you at these meetings—what better way to celebrate and elevate the mission of the AAGL in 2019!

• May 31–June 1 in Louisville KY: AAGL 22^nd Advanced Course on Laparoscopic Anatomy
• May 8–11 in Florence, Italy: The 15^th AAGL International Meeting on Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery in affiliation with the XIV Congresso Nazionale SEGi: Special Edition
  Including special pre-congress post-graduate courses on May 7 in Pisa and Siena, Italy
• June 7–9 in Ahmedabad, India: Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Gynaecological Endoscopists
• July 9-12 in Verona, Italy: The 1^st International School of Surgical Anatomy (ISSA) Hands-On, Intensive Master in Basic and Advanced Laparoscopic Surgical Anatomy of the Female Pelvis and Techniques 
• August 16–18 in Medellín, Colombia: The 16^th AAGL International Congress on Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery / AAGL Global Endometriosis
• November 9–13 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada: The 48^th AAGL Global Congress on MIGS!