ACPS & APCA 2010 Congress

The theme of this meeting is ‘Reaffirming Strengths, Celebrating Diversity’. Since the ancient origins of our specialty, developments in Plastic Surgery have provided innovative solutions for those wounded in body and soul and these have spilled over to other specialties, advancing the whole of medicine and surgery as a result. Ironically, it is for this very reason that the plastic surgical specialty is becoming increasingly vulnerable to challenges – from within, the creative diversity that brings with it the threat of fragmentation; from without, we come under siege from others who make great efforts to stake out new practice territories for themselves based on borrowed knowledge.

This meeting has assembled plastic surgical luminaries from far and near, the front-runners of our specialty, who will reaffirm for us, the creativity, the artistry and the originality that characterises plastic surgery. Our gathering of speakers will display the diversity within our specialty that has been critical for responding to the needs of our patients with solutions based on quality research and innovative thinking.

I urge you to attend this meeting. It is a tremendous opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants and take glimpses of the past, present and future through their eyes. Despite the instant global connectivity that we enjoy with a mouse-click or the touch of a screen; despite our ability to gain immediate cyber-access to the latest of cutting-edge information and surgical technology; nothing can replace the education, and inspiration, derived from direct human interaction with the leaders of our speciality and our colleagues.

Particularly in Plastic Surgery, which is both art and science, no web-cast, pod-cast, or video-conference can equal the multi-dimensional learning that interpersonal contact with the grandmasters and our fellow surgeons can offer. Join us in Borneo Malaysia this July 2010.