2009 MEETING

Meeting Info| Program | Author | Discussant | Directions

What do Guantánamo, the Spruce Goose, wine pirates, and surgeons all have in common?

They will be part of the 96th Annual Meeting of the North Pacific Surgical Association at the historic Benson Hotel in downtown Portland on November 13th and 14th, 2009.

And now, the same caucus that six years ago brought you the Jefferson Dancers, Senator Mark Hatfield, and Dr. Jim Peck’s impassioned, “The Art of Surgery”, the Portland Caucus warmly invites you and your partner to another excellent venue.

The 2009 Program Committee, chaired by Drs. Karen Deveney and Dan Herzig will bring a wide-ranging scientific program, encompassing all the broad topics of general surgery as well as a few unique papers that will generate heated discussion. Our Guest Lecturer will be Dr. Lawrence W. Way, Professor and Chief of the Blue Surgery Service, and Director, Videoscopic Training Programs at University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. In additiion to giving commentary to the scientific program, Dr. Way will present two lectures, “Surgeons and Patient Safety” and “Expertise and the Quality of Care”.

The Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by adventurers, John and Irene Vetto, will have everyone looking forward to an exciting Friday evening. Bring your leather helmets and goggles and hold on to your seats as you are transported out of town at the height of rush hour. Destination….a small air field in McMinnville, Oregon. Secrecy prevents us from divulging any further details of the mission, but should you choose to accept, remember -- if anyone asks, “What’s for dinner?” The password is, “Spruce Goose”.

Other meeting highlights will include Michael Alberty, a self described storyteller and leader of a band of wine pirates, who will bring his passion for wine.

Steven Wax, Federal Public Defender of the District of Oregon, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and author of “Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror”, will describe his experiences defending Guantánamo detainees.

The Saturday evening Presidential Reception and Dinner will provide a rousing send-off to complete our 2009 meeting with a wonderful dinner and surprises that the Portland Caucus is famous for. See you in Portland!

Cliff Deveney, MD

President

GUEST SPEAKERS

Lawrence W. Way, MD

Dr. Lawrence W. Way is one of the prime surgeons that has propelled UCSF to its status as a world-class institution. He has served in a diversity of leadership roles within the UCSF Department of Surgery and the medical community as Chief of the Blue Surgery Service, Director of the Videoscopic Training Programs, and Professor of Surgery to name a few. Dr. Way has also been highly active on a national and international level in surgical organizations such as the American College of Surgeons and the International Society of Surgery.
Dr. Way's unremitting focus on how to best train surgeons is what makes his mentorship elite. While he has done remarkable research and is technically unsurpassed in his chosen area, the development of the surgical house staff has been his top priority. A stern taskmaster on rounds and in the operating room, he sets standards that several generations of UCSF trained surgeons use as a benchmark for performance. Dr. Way is the last court for difficult laparoscopic cases, and his clinics are models on how to be honest yet understanding to patients. Dr. Way constantly looks for avenues to better his students. In this arena, his interests range from the effects of fatigue and safety in the OR to teaching laparoscopic skills in the LARC animal lab.
Dr. Way's focus in optimizing the instruction of surgeons has not been limited to the house staff. He has been a pioneer in training mid-career surgeons in laparoscopic techniques. He has developed a series of hands-on advanced videoscopic training courses with superbly organized lectures and labs that have become justifiably famous, and a credit to UCSF both nationally and internationally. Several of his past fellows continue to proctor in these laparoscopic courses, and never cease to be amazed by how Dr. Way strives to master new technologies while continuing to improve his skills. Dr. Way is a proud UCSF historian who has been part of the university through its ascent from a good regional medical school to a world-class institution.

Steven T. Wax

Steven T. Wax is in his seventh four-year term as the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon. A cum laude graduate of Colgate University and Harvard Law School, he was a key part of the Brooklyn, N.Y. District Attorney's prosecution of David Berkowitz, a.k.a. "Son of Sam." Wax has taught at the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, serves as an ethics prosecutor for the Oregon State Bar, and lectures throughout the country. He lives with his family in Portland. In July 2009, Wax was awarded the American Bar Association’s prestigious Silver Gavel Award for his book, Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror, A Public Defender's Inside Account.

Kafka Comes to America tells the story of Adel Hamad, a Sudanese Hospital administrator, who was taken from his apartment in Pakistan and imprisoned in Guantanamo as part of an anti-Arab sweep intended to satisfy the American government's new security initiatives. "However many blemishes this country has, and however angry we get at some of the policies carried out in our names, there are few countries in the world in which the government would pay a person like me to fight it, and unleash me to fight it on the highest level and the most important issues of our time without any fetters or fear of arrest," writes Wax.

Michael Alberty

Wine pirate and storyteller extrordinaire: “I look forward to being an advocate for good wines that tell an interesting story about where they come from. These will be wines where the passion of the winemaker and the fruits of their skills are evident in every glass. I truly believe that behind every great bottle of wine there’s an even better story.”