2010 MEETING

November 12-13, 2010, Tacoma, WA

Meeting Info | Speakers

NPSA Members & Guests:

Over the past week, Dr. John Holcomb, Visiting Professor, informed NPSA that he had to cancel attending the November meeting due to a family health problem. Association President, Dr. Mark Ludvigson, sent inquiries and found Dr. Quan-Yang Duh at UCSF. On very short notice, Dr. Duh rearranged his schedule and graciously agreed to be the Visiting Professor for the 97th Annual Meeting in Tacoma. We welcome Dr. Duh and look forward to his joining the meeting, to his commentary and lectures, and his company.

Dr. Duh is Professor-in-Residence and Chief, Section of Endocrine Surgery in the Department of Surgery of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his B.S. summa cum laude in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1977 and his MD from UCSF in 1981. He trained in General Surgery at UCSF under Drs. Paul Ebert and Haile Debas and in Endocrine Surgery under Dr. Orlo Clark and joined the UCSF faculty in 1988. Dr. Duh’s clinical expertise is in Endocrine Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery. His research interests involve thyroid cancer and adrenal tumors. He is Past President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgery (AAES) in 2003, and is currently the Secretary-Treasurer of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association. He is on the Editorial Board of Thyroid, World Journal of Endocrine Surgery, and Surgical Laparoscopy Endoscopy & Percutaneous Techniques. He has received numerous teaching awards from medical students and residents from UCSF.

Dr. Duh’s lecture titles for NPSA are: Update on Surgical Treatment of Thyroid Cancer for the Founder's Lecture on Friday 11/12, and Adrenal Incidentaloma: Diagnosis and Treatment for the Royal College Lecture on Saturday 11/13.

On behalf of the program committee and the entire Tacoma caucus, I welcome you all to the 97th Annual Meeting of the North Pacific Surgical Association to be held in Tacoma at the Hotel Murano on November 12-13, 2010. The Hotel Murano is a privately owned hotel which Conde Nast Traveler magazine has rated number six of the top 100 best hotels category of the Reader’s Choice Awards. The hotel theme is glass art and the illuminated lobby at night is spectacular. The hotel has been featured in USA Today for hotels with fine art, and docents from the Tacoma Art Museum regularly conduct walking tours of the lobby and hotel floors. You can see it all for yourself every moment you are there.

As usual, the scientific papers form the backbone of the meeting. Dr. Eugene Cho and the program committee have assembled 22 interesting scientific papers for our edification. We have arranged something special for the Friday night dinner: the entire Museum of Glass is ours for the evening. Dinner will be served in the Great Hall. The galleries will be open to us and glass artisans will work in the hot shop that evening for our instruction and enjoyment. If you become distracted and your food gets cold, take it with you to the hot shop; I guarantee a quick warm up. Dr. Gordon Klatt has found an amazing band, Savoy Nights, that can play a wide variety of music and, I think, involves accordions, among other instruments. They will entertain us after the Saturday evening banquet at the Hotel Murano.

I am pleased to tell you our Visiting Professor is John B. Holcomb, MD, Professor of Surgery and Head, Division of Acute Care Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. His life experience practicing the art of surgery has followed a long and interesting path through military and academic medicine. He serves on multiple committees, editorial boards and is the Chair of the Trauma and Injury Subcommittee of the Defense Health Board Committee. We look forward to his participation as our Visiting Professor.

If you think you know all there is to know about electrocautery, ultrasonic devices and other forms of surgical energy in the operating room, you are in for a surprise. Joel Russo, an industry expert and international trainer/consultant for electrosurgical and ultrasonic instruments will entertain you with an instructive and fun lunch lecture on Saturday, complete with illuminating demonstrations of electrical oddities.

Historian David Nicandri, Director of the Washington State Historical Society, will enlighten us on Friday with new understanding about the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Northwest. His address, “Deconstructing the Lore of Lewis and Clark,” will be of equal interest to both Americans and Canadians. Dr. Nicandri has explored this aspect of history in his most recent book, River of Promise: Lewis and Clark on the Columbia. Our own Association Historian, Dr. Preston Carter, will likewise entertain us in remembering a great Tacoma surgeon, Dr. James Gillespie. He was a bigger-than-life memorable character. Dr. Gillespie was a stimulating influence to many of us in his long life practicing the art of surgery in the military and civilian arenas. Finally, you will also have to listen to my Presidential Address, but that’s no reason not to come!

We welcome you all to the meeting. Please come join us. Spend a weekend in Tacoma being entertained and educated during a pleasant escape from the troubles of the day. I think you will enjoy yourselves.