SurgeryU: Exciting Times Ahead
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a joyful and safe holiday season. It was great to “see” many old friends and make new ones at the Virtual Annual Congress in November. The virtual configuration for the Annual Congress made for a very different meeting, but I have to admit that I was amazed at the level of engagement and the ability to interact and share information that this format provided. Congratulations to Dr. Ted Lee, the Scientific Program Chair, his Scientific Program Committee, and the AAGL staff for putting together an incredible meeting and for their flexibility in the face of a global pandemic.
As Editor-In-Chief of SurgeryU I am looking forward to 2021 and getting “back on track”. Many of our plans for the site had to be put on hold due to the COVID pandemic. I hope 2021 allows us to return to some normalcy and permits us to begin working on projects we had to put on the back burner. Here are some things the Editorial Board and I will be working on in the upcoming year:
-Uploading select content from the 2020 Annual Congress. All of the content from the Annual Congress will be available to registrants until April 1, 2021. After that date, we will be selecting some of the highest rated content from the meeting to archive on SurgeryU. This will include all of the live surgeries! The virtual format for the meeting was a great hit and we want to leverage the fact that the entire meeting was recorded for our membership.
-Continue the AAGL/FMIGS Webinar Series. The Webinar series has been a great resource and has been a valuable supplement to the education of not only our fellows but all of our members. It has allowed us to employ the amazing expertise of our colleagues to disseminate useful information throughout the year. We will continue to bring these interactive sessions to our membership monthly and have many new and exciting topics in store for 2021.
-Collaborate with other international societies. Our webinar with IGCS (https://surgeryu.com/detail/5178) allowed us to tap into the expertise within IGCS as well as AAGL for a great lecture on surgical complications. With the success of this webinar, we would like to continue the trend of cooperation and synergy and work with other sister societies to address timely and relevant topics.
-Develop a mobile app for SurgeryU. Our goal is to develop a robust app to allow you to consume SurgeryU content on the go! With more of us relying on our mobile devices to surf the web, an app for SurgeryU is the natural progression of the site. This will allow easier access to videos and content and improve SurgeryU’s function as a teaching tool.
Myself, the Editorial Board, and Staff have a busy year ahead of us. I am excited for what 2021 will bring. Please feel free to reach out if you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding how we can make SurgeryU better for our members. Stay safe and Happy New Year!
