Message from the president of European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES)

Dear colleagues and friends,
I begin by thanking Tina and the Norwegian surgeons for the opportunity and invitation to write these short notes, also telling you how honored and grateful I am to the colleagues in the board and the members of the general assembly for entrusting me the presidency of European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES). My desire for the future is to have their recognition in terms of having fulfilled my mandate with commitment and dignity, in order to meet our statutory objectives.

Twelve years since the ESTES creation, as a result of merging European Association for Trauma & Emergency Surgery (EATES) and European Trauma Society (ETS), in Graz, and four years since the last revision of the statutes, in Amsterdam, I believe a reevaluation is timely in order to understand what is going well and what may need to be changed.

Trying to continue lines of action proposed by former presidents, I agree with the «Perfect Patient Pathway» as a source of inspiration, but with trauma as a common denominator to the various actors, and with the need for greater investment in terms of public relations, with ESTES as the «Telephone Number of Trauma and Emergency Surgery in Europe”.

As I had already done for the official ESTES journal, I would like to draw your attention to what has to do with the representativeness of ESTES at the international level (not forgetting the European institutions), inviting new colleagues, new societies and new specialties:

• To include as primary objectives to promote trauma and emergency surgery in general and to disseminate interest, knowledge, and quality in these fields, not only all over Europe but also in neighboring countries with which there are important affinities, including those on the other side of the Mediterranean basin;
• To demonstrate greater openness to colleagues and entities from countries not represented in ESTES, especially those from the other continents with whom each represented country maintains relevant historical relations;
• To demonstrate greater openness to colleagues from other specialties and their societies, especially anesthesiologists, intensivists and pediatricians, as well as peri-operative nurses, our partners in everything that has to do with emergency surgery, similarly to what is happening in the context of other international societies;

I conclude by wishing us all the best of success for our next congress in Oslo, in half a year.