President's Blog
Dr Rachel Green 5th Edition, April 2024
Welcome readers to the Presidents Blog.
It has taken a little while for me to finally sit down and write this. We have had a whirlwind start to 2024 with the ASM "How do I do that?” which proved to be a fantastic success! After 12 months as President of this vibrant society, I am so proud of everything we have achieved over this period.
The ASM was held at the GCCEC from February 29 to March 2 and we had close to 500 delegates join us for this meeting. This is extremely close to the record attendance at an AGES Event. The feedback from this meeting was excellent and our delegates had a wonderful opportunity to be educated and catch up with colleagues. It is so nice to see us all finally get back to normality with our meetings.
Our international faculty were outstanding – Dr Leslie Kardos and Dr Tanvir Singh were incredible orators as well as educators and I hope the delegates went home with new practical and theoretical knowledge which they can implement into their practice.
Our sponsors were spoilt with a huge exhibition space allowing them to highlight their products and mingle with the delegates. I know we say many times during our meetings how important our sponsors are to enable us to bring you these educational activities. Without their support, we would simply not be able to run events such as these. I would like to make special mention and thank our AGES Education Partner, Medtronic for their continued support and also our AGES Professional Development Alliance Partner, Avant for providing articles for this edition.
It was a privilege to present the 2024 AATP graduates with their certificates during the Gala dinner. The individuals honoured were Dr. Tarana Lucky, Dr. Jessica Dunning, Dr. Isabela dos Anjos Siqueira, Dr. Nyasha Gwata, Dr. Lauren Hofmann, Dr. Candice Houda, Dr. Ali Mohamed, Dr. Anna Nicholson, Dr. Inge Putri, Dr. Jessica Robertson, Dr. Charlotte Rook, Dr. Mikhail Sarofim, Dr. Eashan Tambimuttu, Dr. Dhivya Thangavel, Dr. Samuel Vo, Dr. Madeleine Ward, Dr. Avelyn Wong, and Dr. Sofie Neutens.
Furthermore, the society took pride in supporting RizeUp Australia as our chosen charity for the annual art auction. RizeUp is a national organization that collaborates with domestic violence agencies to enhance the services they offer. The auction successfully raised over $18,000.00.
We are grateful for the feedback the membership provides from our meetings. This feedback is essential – both good or bad, it assists the board in the development of future content. I welcome you to email me personally at president@ages.com.au with any suggestions on how we can improve the quality and deliverability of our upcoming programs.
As we look towards our future upcoming events, I am pleased to see the return of the Pelvic Floor Symposium which will be held in Sydney on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 July.
The Local Organising Committee have been working tirelessly to bring this program together. We have collaborated with APAGE and look forward to welcoming Professor Jimmy Nomura from Kamogawa in Japan, who is the Director of Urogynaecology at the Kameda Medical centre and who is dual trained in both Urology and Gynaecology. He will join our esteemed local faculty from across Australia.
This meeting, themed “Across the Ages” aims to look at pelvic floor medicine from the very young to our elderly population. There will also be involvement from Urology, Colorectal surgery and Physiotherapy amongst the sessions. I hope you can join us at this meeting.
It’s hard to believe just 9 years ago we were delivering the Focus Meeting in Hobart and we are excited to return again this year. This will be our last conference for 2024 and will be held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Friday 1 & Saturday 2 November.
The theme of this year’s Focus Meeting is “Script or Scalpel.” The Local organising committee are developing an engaging program covering session topics such as Pelvic pain, Fibroids, Abnormal uterine bleeding and surgical planning. Registrations will open in late July.
We have very fond memories of our Focus meeting in 2015 and we look forward to delivering yet another exceptional event to our members.
We will be returning to the Kolling Institute in June for the Trainee Workshop, aimed at O+G trainees with a focus on Laparoscopic techniques. This program offers trainees hands on opportunities to practice skills such as suturing in a dry lab setting with experienced mentors to guide and advise them. The workshop is limited to 20 participants and is likely to sell out soon. We encourage those interested to register to avoid disappointment.
The Lap-D workshops continue this year. Whilst our in-person events have sold out this year, we still have spaces available at the Lap-Demo workshop. Hosted virtually by our Vice President, Dr Wynn-Williams on May 12, this all-day intensive workshop will allow delegates the opportunity to experience this workshop without the need to travel. It will also allow those who have previously attended the opportunity to revise what they have previously learned. You can register by clicking here.
We are planning a suite of Webinars for this year. Our Webinar series started last month with Professor Jason Abbot. This Webinar was well attended and received excellent feedback. If you missed “Research Tips and Tricks” it is available for a small fee by clicking the button below. You can also see the upcoming webinars at this location.
The next in our series, on Thursday 16 May will complement our Pelvic Floor Symposium and is examining the role of Apical Repair and Support. Drs Salwan Al-Salihi and Tanaka Dune will be presenting this webinar which will be facilitated by Dr Fariba Behnia-Willison and members of Pelvic Floor portfolio.
I hope to see you soon, either in person at one of our upcoming meetings, or virtually at one of our webinars!
Warmest Wishes,
Dr Rachel Green
AGES President
president@ages.com.au
Proudly supplied by AGES Professional Development Alliance Partner, Avant
Proudly supplied by AGES Platinum Education Partner, Medtronic
