SCTSSA Biennial Meeting 13th-16th June 2003
The 6th Biennial meeting was held at the Kruger Park and the new committee was elaected at the AGM on 13th June 2003.
| President | Robbie Kleinloog |
| Vice President | Robin H Kinsley |
| Hon Secretary | Elias Zigiriadis |
| Treasurer | Raj Madansein |
| Francis Smit | |
| Johan Brink | |
| David Blyth |
The meeting was a great success with +/- 92 guests and 42 representatives from industry. The venue was superb and the conference programme comprehensive in most aspects of cardiac, general thoracic and vascular surgery. Invited guests included Stephen Westaby, Krishna Khargi, Oliver Jegaden, Jean-paul Couetil, Hilal Laks, Bruno Reichart and Stanton Newman.
Contributions from our local members including the registrars were encouraging and of a high standard. These included presentations from R. Kleinloog, D Blyth, R Naidoo, S Savama, D whittasker, J Brink, P S Maharaj, W Koen, E Zigiriadis, P Zilla, J V Robbs, M Munasur, A Reddi, R Girdwood, A Linekar. K de Groot, J hewitson, R Kinsley and S L Cronje.
The support of industrry was invaluable and thanks to all those who supported this meeting. Our main sponseer was Medtronic and we are indebted to them for their very generous finacial contribution to this meeting. Other contributors included Cardiomedics, Edward Life Sciences, Tyco Healthcare, Investec Bank, Arrow Africa, Viking Medical and Scientific, Ethicon, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Marcus Medical and Bayer.
The continued growth and success of the Registrar Forum followed On 30th January 2004 at the Champagne Sporrts Resort in the Drakensberg. This was sponsered by Ethicon. The academic programme was over three days and included 11 presentations. The format was designed to allow for brisk discussion and was well received by all participants. Also for the first time a booklet was prodused including 17 topics in the form of a review by registrars. We hope to expand on this in the forthcoming meetings culminating in a comprehensive review of cardiac and thoracic surgery topics.
At the end of the symposium a panel of Heads of Departments voted for the best registrar based on his performance, participation and presentation at the meeting. The prize included a R5,000 voucher and this was won by J Botha of Bleomfontein.
We hope in th enear future to keep you informed of the 'Society Happenings' in the form of a Newsletter. Any suggestions are most welcome,
Elias Zigiriadis Hon Sec SCTSSA
The San Lameer Congress 2001
The SCTSSAcongress took place at San Lameer on the KwaZulu Natal South Coast from Thursday12th July 2001 culminating with the Congress dinner on Saturday 14th July. On the Thursday Mr. Kleinloog, the vice president of the society was able to take several of the overseas visitors to Bishopscourt in Cape Town to meet Nelson Mandela. The original plan of the ex-president addressing the Congress had unfortunately not been possible but he was able to send a message to the Society
Message from Nelson Mandela to SCTSSA members.
"Determination was the key to succeed in medicine. Despite all the technological advances made in recent history, determination remains the most important basic requirement that surgeons should nurture in order to achieve success in the treatment of the sick. By the same token it is also the most important attribute patients can have to overcome disease." He then urged Cardiac Surgeons in France to continue the good work that was started by pioneers before us.
President Mandela with Mr. Kleinloog, Prof Yacoub, Dr. Perrier, and Dr. Randall Wolf
Sir Magdi Yacoub giving the closing speech at The SCTSSA Congress
Sir Magdi Yacoub opened the Congress on Friday morning with a fascinating talk on the explosion in Bioengineering and the opportunities which hopefully lie around the corner in genetics for the entire medical profession. Further contributions from Dr Perrier on Bioprostheses, Prof Califiore on off-pump coronary aretery bypass surgery and a talk by Randall Wolf on 'Robotics' or computer assisted surgery along with many excellent local contributors completed a very interesting and informative day. One of these talks was by Professor John Barlow who advised the profession to keep its feet on the ground and not get too carried away with the future when many of our problems are rooted in the past and affect us in the present. The evening entertainment with Wolfgang Riebe, an illusionist with a superb display of magic, left many of the delegates more mystified than any of the presentations they had attended earlier in the day. The Saturday morning continued with more local contributions. In the afternoon delegates were free to partake of the entertainment arranged for them in the form of Whale Watching, Game fishing and Golf. The Congress than finished with a meal with entertainment by Cut Glass, whose unaccompanied singing with vocal effects was quite splendid. The closing speech at the dinner by Sir Magdi Yacoub was quite moving. He said that felt humbled and elated by his meeting with Nelson Mandela, and exhorted us all to strive harder in the future for the benefit of our patients. He pointed out that the Cardiothoracic Fraternity is indeed a worldwide family and that we can use our experience not to compete with one another but to augment each other in our practice. He stated that we have a duty to our patients to push forward with our research to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of their disease.
Noel Julian Buckels
Hon Sec SCTSSA