Dear Members of the Midwest Surgical Association,

It is a great honor to serve as the President of the Midwest Surgical Association for the year 2007-2008. I have enjoyed my involvement in the Association that began as a child attending the meetings with my parents and siblings as my father was an active member and past president of this association. My active membership in the MSA has been one of the highlights of my surgical career culminating in this honor.

I would like to take this opportunity to make the membership aware of the activities of the society since our last business meeting. We are continuing to update and increase the utilization of our web site, www.midwestsurg.com. The program committee and the council are working to more effectively integrate the website into the annual meeting with on-line abstract submission for the scientific program, as well as the spectacular problems in surgery.

Twenty-seven papers presented at the fiftieth annual meeting of the Midwest Surgical Association were published in the March issue of the American Journal of Surgery. Dr. Senagore’s presidential address was published. The Journal was also kind enough to publish Dr. Terrence Hick’s Harridge Lecture and Dr. Michael Nussbaum’s ACS update.

Dr. Cirocco has worked very diligently to create a meeting consistent with our family orientation at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. We will have an exciting theme as this will be the fifty-first birthday meeting. A special evening cruise to the Mackinac Bridge will be a treat this year.

The 2008 meeting will highlight Dr. Gerald B. Healy, Professor of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard University, and president of the American College of Surgeons who will give us an update on the issues being dealt with by the College in our behalf. I am especially pleased to announce that my good friend Dr. Douglas Mathisen, Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, will be the Harridge Lecturer, speaking on “Where Have All the Residents Gone?"

We will plan to return to the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in 2009 and Dr. Waits has generously agreed to assume the role of local arrangements chair. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at the fifty-first birthday meeting of the Midwest Surgical Association on Mackinac Island this year. Please remember to recruit new members from among your colleagues.

Sincerely,

James R. DeBord, MD
President, Midwest Surgical Association

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