From Science to Practice: From Colleagues to Friends
In 2006, trauma surgeons met at the European Congress in Ljubljana, where they decided to partner with emergency surgeons to form a new complex professional organisation, ESTES, which would provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience of surgeons from different European countries with different ways of organising their professional work, different ways of organising the surgical emergency room, different healthcare systems with different levels of sophistication, and different ways of paying for services.
After 17 years, the Slovenian members of this esteemed organisation succeeded in once again hosting the event in Ljubljana. It was held in CD-Congress Centre between 7 and 9 May.
The ESTES management prepared the event in cooperation with the Slovenian team: Simon Herman, Matej Cimerman, and Prof. Radko Komadina. The enticing congress included presentations of new developments in the professional fields, new methods based on increasingly less invasive approaches, IT support, the growing use of Artificial Intelligence, endovascular approaches and the application of new implants and new materials in everyday surgical emergency and trauma practice.
The congress was attended by 842 participants from all over the world. It was the second congress after two years of the pandemic. ECTES 2022 in Oslo and 2023 in Ljubljana showed the importance of the direct exchange of expert opinions, experiences, live controversial discourses on the implementation of new treatments and new ways of organising work.
There is no doubt ESTES is the ideal European Network in the surgical community dedicated to the care in trauma and emergency general surgery, and the annual congress will be the perfect moment to improve our skills, pathways, leadership, decision making and team communication.
Mateja Peric, Congress Project Manager at CD-Congress Centre, explained: “It is a tremendous honour for us to host the event in Slovenia after seventeen years, and that the organisers selected Cankarjev dom as the host. I believe we achieved all our set goals. We enabled attendees from across the globe to meet in person, present new findings, and exchange know-how. Canlarjev dom, with its full-range in-house services, ensured the event ran smoothly.”
Prof. Radko Komadina, President of the Slovenian Medical Association and President of the Emergency Trauma and Sports Medicine Section of ESTES, was nominated as the first Honorary Congress Ambassador of Slovenia in 2019. Find out more at: https://www.congress-ambassador.si/en/congress-ambassadors-2019/.
