IASSS

Last night was the opening night of what promises to be a fascinating conference in Cape Town: the inaugural meeting of the IASSS (International Association of Student Surgical Societies).


The conference started with a golf day followed by a cocktail party.  The Breast Course for Nurses has been nominated as the charity for the event so Sr Lieske and I spent the evening there.

Mr Nicholas Tamela 

After the introductory talk, Prof Klopper (Vice Chancellor UCT) opened the evening.  She sketched a future for medical eduction that will result in less boundaries being drawn between undergraduate and post graduate training.  She said the the days of the undergraduate student being a consumer of knowledge should be behind us: they should become producers of knowledge as well.

The Wits team

We listened to presentations from many of the student surgical associations attending the conference.  They were from SA (UCT, Wits and Stellenbosch), as well as from other coutries: Tanzania, China, Australia, USA and Namibia. It was fascinating to hear about their visions and goals and whilst there were obvious differences, all the speakers impressed me with their confidence and enthusiasm.

 Not only will we be the financial beneficiaries of the conference, we met a lot of dynamic, energetic young medical students who we hope will consider becoming involved with our project.

Guys, well done on an excellent conference and THANK YOU!