Dear Friends and Colleagues

On behalf of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, this is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 46^th Annual Scientific Congress in Bangkok during 4-6 December, 2021. The theme of this congress is “Achieving the Excellent Outcomes in Essential Surgery”.

In the event of COVID-19 viral spreading globally particularly in Thailand since the beginning of this year, this critical problem has deteriorated economy and health care system in our country. This infectious problem has also created the limitation of postgraduate training program in every surgical specialty. The surgical experience of the trainees is substantially decreased especially in essential surgery to save life of our patients suffering from critical surgical diseases. This is our responsibility to maintain the standard of surgical competency in the training program particularly in relation to this type of surgery. Therefore, the theme of this congress could provide the great benefit to our trainees. The committees of the congress have invited the experts of all surgical specialty to demonstrate how to obtain the successful outcomes in these surgical treatments for the trainees and the young surgeons.

Again, with this serious infectious problem, we have to be organizing this congress with the physically and socially distancing events together with the online participations for the safety of infection. However, the scientific information has to be demonstrated to all participants extensively despite of the limitation of social interactions. All presentations will be recorded for the participants with the opportunity to review all surgical techniques required for the treatments of their patients in the future.

I do hope that you will receive the fruitful information from this congress to improve your competency and to achieve your excellent outcome in essential surgery.

I look forward to welcoming you in the congress.

Pramook Mutirangura MD, FRCST, FRCS (Edinburgh)
President of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand

On behalf of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, it is my pleasure and honour to welcome you to the 46^th Annual Scientific Congress of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand in conjunction with Ministry of Public Health (5^th Joint Surgical Meeting) and National Health Security Office (2^nd Joint Surgical Meeting). This Congress is a great collaboration of three large organizations (Scientific affairs, Productivity users, and Payers) in order to create the highest advantages for Thai public health and it will be held from 4 to 6 December 2021 at Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at Central World, Bangkok, Thailand in Hybrid meeting platform, so please mark your calendar. Otherwise, you may unfortunately miss a good chance to attend this significant Congress.

Moreover, I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome specialized nurses to attend our Congress in 2021. I believe firmly that cooperation, coordination, and helpful support between surgeons and nurses will be highly beneficial for medical treatment and hope that we can continue this valuable cooperation in the next congress.

From satisfaction survey results of the 45^th Annual Scientific Congress, it is obviously shown that our RCST members prefer face-to-face congress rather than online congress. Then this year, RCST will arrange on-site congress with the purpose of giving a chance to our members to keep up with new surgical advancement and get together. However, we still concern about our participants’ health and safety, so we will provide the body temperature screening at the entrances and organize the Congress without breaking social distancing measures. We will divide the meeting rooms into several sub-meeting rooms with a focus on specific content of each surgical specialties, and also avoiding the crowd.

The theme of this Congress entitled “Achieving the Excellent Outcomes in Essential Surgery” is compilation of the ultimate development in various surgical fields for working on the best treatment outcomes. In addition, there will be attractive topics in multidisciplinary sessions from Ministry of Public Health in conjunction with National Health Security Office and Social Security Office to enhance fulfillment of the Congress as well as specialized nurses. There will be the session about patient care progress, especially patient who has undergone vascular surgery for hemodialysis and patients who has received a kidney transplant. It sounds extremely interesting and engaging these topics.

I would like to invite our members to participate in the Annual General Meeting of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand which will be hold at 9-11 a.m. on Friday 23, July 2021 via online platform in order to follow overall achievement of the RCST executive committee, express opinions, and suggest operational guidelines for improving our organization with the aim of serving our members’ requirement.

This Congress is excellently accomplished by cooperation and dedication of our Organizing Committee. They devote their time to work out a plan, select the best choices, adjust and also refine the scientific program by considering all participants’ worthiness and requirement as a major. I would like to thank you the Organizing Committee under Assoc. Prof. Vitoon Chinswangwatanakul’s leadership. Also, thanks to the RCST officers who assist in coordinating with every parts. Lastly, I wish to thank you all medical companies who always support our activities for over several years. Without support from everyone, our Congress could not be completed.

I hope our participants will receive lots of new scientific knowledge and will have a good time by meeting professors, old friends and also new friends among surgeons and nurses.

I am looking forward to welcoming all of you at the Congress.

Paisit Siriwittayakorn, MD, FRCST
Immediate Past President
The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand and other countries worldwide, Thai surgeons and other medical specialists from various fields have been banned to meet each other. Meanwhile, all surgeons had been shifted to deal with this dreadful disaster. It has been about two years since individuals around the world have had to radically alter their lifestyles due to this outbreak. This has affected the entire society, including the Annual Scientific Congress of The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, the academic activity that attracts the greatest number of surgeons. Although the COVID-19 situation in Bangkok is improving, the number of vaccinated people is increasing, so far, the government has resumed social activities, this year's Congress was still held in Bangkok with an unconventional platform. The Organizing Committee has worked hard to organize this congress in order to maintain the goal of enhancing and modernizing Thai surgeons' academy alive. To fulfill government safety regulations, we have to adjust the congress format and lower the number of participants at the congress venue. However, the quality of academic contents and speakers is carefully selected to ensure that RCST members would benefit the most.

The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand has prepared several safety precautions for the congress, including safety screening procedures for attendees, checking the verification of vaccination, requesting cooperation to wear a mask all time, and preparing ATK on-site. In addition, the decision to hold the event in a hybrid format indicates the Organizing Committee's strong purpose to serve our members all over Thailand with as much access to academic congress as feasible.

Regarding the highlights of this year's programming, The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand are greatly honored by Honorary Professor Somsri Phaosawat, President of the Medical Council of Thailand, who will deliver the Udom Poshakrishna Memorial Lecture and also participate in a special panel discussion titled “The Talent of Thai Surgeons: from Universal Coverage, Fight COVID-19 Towards World Changer”. In particular, similar to the previous year, there will be tremendous special sessions of the Ministry of Public Health and the National Health Security Office.

The Organizing Committee truly believes that all participants would profit from The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand's Annual Scientific Congress, which will be hosted on the theme "Achieving Excellent Outcomes in Essential Surgery” and would be delighted to invite all members to attend.

Vitoon Chinswangwatanakul, MD, FRCST
Chairman of the Organizing Committee
46^th Annual Scientific Congress
The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand