The PSF Annual Report

Download the full 2011 Annual Report

From Our Immediate-Past President

Innovation and patient safety, though at face value appear independent of one another, there is no denying that the two are wedded and that high-quality, evidence-based research is necessary for the safety of our patients.

The Plastic Surgery Foundation works to ensure that advances in medicine have a verifiable clinical impact. The year 2011 was a good reminder that we are on the right path. Our Technology and Innovation in Plastic Surgery (TIPS) meeting brought hundreds of people from around the world to San Francisco to discuss how to best utilize technology to positively impact patient care. It was a meeting of the minds whose sole focus was on finding new pathways to ensure that bright ideas break out of the research lab where they will have the greatest impact on human life.

Evidence of our impact is all around us. Through doctors at TIPS, clinical articles published monthly in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and other projects, we know that procedural improvements don’t happen overnight. Patient safety is of particular importance. The PSF needs NIH-style research projects that emphasize clinically relevant investigation and give us the opportunity to work towards meaningful innovation that leads directly to the discovery of creative solutions to common clinical problems.

The ideas developed by plastic surgeons are often emulated in other medical disciplines at home and around the world. Because this detail is often lost on the public and others, we, as plastic surgeons, need to fight hard to provide this distinctive mantle of thought and continue to encourage innovative leadership within our profession. The PSF is proud to have developed the infrastructure to make this happen. To that end, in 2011 we established ThePSF.org, a website where surgeons and consumers can appreciate the integral role that The Foundation continues to play in the lives of patients worldwide.

A little more than a decade ago, the advances made in breast reconstruction, limb transplantation, fat grafting and stem cell transfer were but a dream in a petri dish. Thanks to the researchers who came before us, many of these once groundbreaking medical innovations are now a part of your everyday clinical practice.

Day in and day out, we nurture the link between our specialty and some of the most creative minds in the world to provide a bright future for generations of plastic surgeons to come. It’s been truly an amazing year. I thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving The Foundation. We have many success stories to share in these pages and many more to look forward to. Let’s get back to work.

John Persing, MD

 


John A. Persing, MD
2011 President
The Plastic Surgery Foundation