23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery

At the end of the month the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery will host its annual meeting in Phoenix Arizona. I am honored to be the program chair of this meeting along with my co-chairpersons Joseph Niamtu, DMD, and Susan Hughes, MD. This will be the largest meeting ever held by the Academy and is a testament to the advantages of multidisciplinary learning physicians seek and from which patients benefit. At that meeting I will be elected to the Presidency of the Academy and will hold that post for one year. During 2007 the Academy will accept its 2000th member, another testimony to the viability of this relatively new specialty. We are now the largest multidisciplinary society devoted to cosmetic surgery in the world and we are increasingly being asked by our European, Latin, and Asian colleagues to bring them the knowledge we have gained and to participate in their meetings in their host countries. This year I am planning on attending 2 meetings in Europe and one in Dubai and I and the Board of Directors want to welcome our international colleagues to our meetings and workshops.
This year's meeting features Maria Siemionow, MD, PhD , director of Plastic Surgery Research at the Cleveland Clinic and the person likely to perform the first face-transplant surgery in the United States. I have been privileged to hear her speak and her explanation of the immunologic obstacles and how they are overcome are fascinating to all.
I will try to outline the meeting in blogs this coming week and welcome all physicians and paramedical persons who wish to expand their understandings of the scope of cosmetic surgery.