A Fun Time Was Had By All In The City By The Bay!

José Guillem, MDThe weather was great, the city and venue ideal and attendance at the JJSS Reception during the American College of Surgeons Fall Meeting stronger than ever! Nearly 70 attended with representation from Graduation classes as far back as the 1950s and every decade since! In addition to the usual attendees such as Ken and Kay Forde, James and Cindi Chandler, Mark and Ruth Hardy, Juan and Michele Nogueras, Carey Dolgin and Ellen Steiner, Steven and Gail Ruby, Jeff and Andrea Cohen, Larry and Deborah Jordan, Spencer Amory, Andre Campbell, Karen Horvath, Ellen Hagopian, Tyr Wilbanks, and Department Chairman Craig Smith, there were many "relative" new comers such as, Marilyn Butler, Emina Huang, Joanne Starr, Eugene Kim, Rondi Gilbard, and many, many others that added to the nights' excitement. It was a pleasure to see an increasing number of younger attendees including Abbey Fingeret (Chief Resident), Connie Keung (first John Jones Fellow), and Alodia Gabre-Kidan from the residency program, and several P&S students keenly interested in pursuing a career in surgery. Michael Salna (P&S '17), presented the outcomes of his research at the Medical Student Program Poster Session on Sunday. His story is featured in this issue.

It was a great gathering with lots of lively discussions among old and new acquaintances. Topics ranged from the usual professional and familial developments to insights on climbing Mount Everest by our own renowned Alpinist, Sherman Bull. Kudos to David Tilson who has reactivated his translational research efforts with vigor. Special thanks to Peter and Judy Dillon for making the special effort to drop in on the JJSS Reception while they hosted the Penn State Hershey Department of Surgery Reception right next door.

As the evening unfolded, one theme became apparent to many of us, namely, we enjoy telling anecdotal stories about lessons learned from our illustrious teachers at Columbia P & S. It appears that many of these lessons and sayings continue to be passed on to our current residents at Columbia as well as residents/fellows in our respective training institutions throughout the country. However, it also appears that many of these excellent teaching "pearls" may be forgotten with time. In an effort to harness this "wisdom" Karen Horvath has suggested that we all submit our favorite Forde, Hardy, King, Logerfo, Gump, Markowitz, Kister, Berch, Jaretzki, Nowygrod, Spotnitz, Bowman, Rose, Smith, etc., teaching comments/pearls to Trisha Hargaden in order to begin a repository of "Columbia Surgery Pearls". We believe that this effort will capture wisdom, judgment and humor and serve as a great teaching resource and archive of Columbia Surgery. We look forward with anticipation to your contributions. Please do not flounder with this assignment, righto, righto!

I look forward to seeing everyone during the upcoming JJSS Spring Meeting scheduled to take place on May 8, 2015, in conjunction with the Columbia University College of P&S Alumni Association Meeting. Stay tuned for further details.

Respectfully,

Jose G Guillem, MD, MPH
JJSS President