KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia through Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had the honour on Monday to deliver the Martin Allgower Lecture at the 48th World Congress of Surgery (WCS) 2019, in Krakow, Poland.
In his official Facebook he said he was deeply humbled to have been given the honour.
The congress from Aug 11 to 15 is hosted by the International Society of Surgery (ISS) and the lecture commemorates Professor Martin Allgower, an internationally renowned surgeon, who was the Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Basel from 1967 until 1983.
The congress offers scientific excellence in the field of surgery at an affordable price, where it brings together many of the world’s leading experts, and also provides a platform for scientific and clinical working groups.
In his lecture titled, ‘Difficult Thyroid Surgery - Primum Non Nocere’, Dr Noor Hisham highlighted that in thyroid surgery, no harm must be done, more so in difficult cases and even if the doctors had to take the calculated risk.
“I reiterated that surgery is an important component of primary care and that there was no Universal Health Coverage without access to safe and affordable surgical and anaesthesia care,“ he said.
He presented the lecture in the morning and later in the afternoon moderated a session on Global Scenario of Education, Training & Ethics in Breast Surgery.
On Thursday, Dr Noor Hisham is expected to deliver two more lectures at the congress on ‘Global Surgery’ and ‘Endocrine Surgery Without the Bells and Whistles’.
“Apart from moderator duties, I also presented on Global Surgery Education and Training using the Malaysian Breast and Endocrine Surgical Training and the Malaysian Standards for Postgraduate Medical Specialist Training as specific examples.
“The development of the latter is led by the Subcommittee on Postgraduate Medical Education under the Medical Education Committee (MEC), Malaysian Medical Council,“ he said.
In Dec 2017, Dr Noor Hisham was appointed as Chair of the Global Surgery Committee of the International Society of Surgery (ISS) for the 2017-2021 term, the first Malaysian to receive such recognition. — Bernama
