ASSH marks 75th anniversary with virtual meeting, appreciation for global connections
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Presenters at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting highlighted the 75th anniversary of the society. A video shown also paid tribute to the roots of ASSH and what has been learned in the specialty since then.
The meeting, which got underway with a rap video created and performed by hand surgeons worldwide, was the first virtual ASSH meeting, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Martin I. Boyer, MD, FRCS(C), president of ASSH, said, “It’s an honor to open this historic meeting, our first virtual meeting ever, live from our central office in Chicago’s West Loop.”
“It’s an historic meeting in many ways and I’m glad, I’m personally glad, that so many of you have joined us from so many countries. [This is] a testament to our resilience and our collaborative spirits. We may be spread around the globe, but we still have managed to come together today,” he said.
Boyer said the 2020 ASSH Meeting Program Co-chairs Ryan P. Calfee, MD, MSC, and Dawn M. LaPorte, MD, were “simply outstanding.” Boyer, who is Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and co-chief of the hand and microsurgery service at Washington University Orthopedics in Saint Louis, recognized Calfee and LaPorte’s efforts to produce and deliver the “same excellent content” for the meeting, but under challenging circumstances.
He acknowledged the Indian Society for Surgery of the Hand as the international guest society and welcomed S. Raja Sabapathy, MS, MCh, DNB, FRCS, of Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore, India, as the guest international speaker. Sabapathy’s lecture, “Be the change that you want to see in the world,” is scheduled to be given on Oct. 2.
With all the changes that have occurred at ASSH in the last year and particularly in the run up to the meeting, Boyer said his presidential lecture — “Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht” — was aptly named. An old Yiddish adage which means “man plans, and God laughs,” Boyer said he easily conjured the theme for his talk after worldwide events started unfolding at the “inflection point” in the second week of March 2020.
However, despite the adage, Boyer and others at the opening ceremonies detailed some plans that have come to fruition recently and favorably for ASSH and the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand. These included distribution of $1.3 million for grants, awards and programs in 2019 and a presidential line that puts Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS, of University of Michigan Health System, next at the helm of ASSH and will see Jennifer Moriatis Wolf, MD, become the second female president of ASSH.
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Boyer MI. Der mentsch trakht un Got lakht (Man plans, and God laughs). Presented at: American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting; Oct. 1-3, 2020 (virtual meeting).
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