Dear Members of the Mediterranean Society of Coloproctology (MSCP),
Nowadays, the need for colorectal surgery as a subspecialty has increased tremendously.
It has been about 20 years since Prof. Herand Abcarian [1] expressed the need to recognize coloproctology as a separate specialty uniformly worldwide.
In the USA colorectal surgeons founded the American Proctology Society in 1889 and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery was charted to certify the future specialists in this field over 70 years ago.
The Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) European Board of Surgical Qualification (EBSQ) Certification in Coloproctology remains the only recognized certification in the specialty of coloproctology outside USA and Canada.
In particular, The Division of Coloproctology was founded in 1997 within the Section of Surgery of the UEMS and one of the first goals was the differentiation of
General Surgery into specialties within.
The first to be formed was in Vascular Surgery (ESBQ Diploma in Venice, 1996) and the second Division was in Coloproctology (ESBQ Diploma in Malmo, 1998).
The first President of the Division of Coloproctology has been Professor John Christiansen (Denmark) with Professor John Nicholls as Secretary. To date there are over seventy holders of the diploma.
Despite this, in Italy Colorectal Surgery is still not recognized as a subspecialty and the gap with other European countries, in terms of training, has grown heavily.
For this reason in February 2017, in collaboration with a group of young colorectal colleagues (Paola Campenni, Jacopo Martellucci, Marco Milone, Gianluca Pellino, Alessandro Sturiale and subsequently Elisabetta Moggia, Francesco Pata e Gianluca Rizzo), and under the menthorship of Dr. Mario Trompetto, we launched the Young Group of the Italian Society of Colorectal Surgery (You-SICCR) [2] with the aim of being an open platform for young Italian surgeons interested in colorectal surgery.
However, the idea of forming this group had been there for a long time and I cannot forget a suggestion from Prof. Pescatori: “It is important to be actively involved in a project. Engagement generates interest and collaboration”.
The first initiative of our group was a survey on the satisfaction with training and job placement.
A 44-item survey investigating individual satisfaction of surgical trainees (aged between 25 and 40) with a special interest in colorectal diseases was drafted by Y-SICCR Committee Members.
The questionnaire was delivered online with SurveyMonkey (SurveyMonkey Inc. San Mateo, California, USA, Main Website: www.surveymonkey.com), and responses anonymously recorded.
Thanks to the dissemination through the SICCR newsletter, social media (Follow us on twitter @YouSICCR) and the help of several young societies that have supported us 122 individual responses were received.
The survey demonstrated huge variations in the quality of training in Italy with inadequate exposure to colorectal surgery in several training units.
Consequently, a low satisfaction level, due to the low number of procedures performed in the training path, very much below expectations and recommended standards, as well as the perceived lack of tools and skills for training in particular areas of coloproctology such as inflammatory bowel diseases, has been highlighted.
The results of the survey were presented at the Annual Congress of the SICCR held in Rome in October 2017 with a lively discussion made by a panel of European experts in colorectal surgery and supervisors and they will be published in an international colorectal journal very soon.
From January 2017 more than 60 young colorectal surgeons have joined our project and many of them are already active members of commissions and specialized sections of the SICCR, interacting with our dedicated social media channels.
The more recent initiative of the You-SICCR is the ISMAEL Survey (Internet and Social Media Among colorectal patients, http://www.siccr.org/2018/02/ismael-study/ ). It has been launched in February 2018 for the evaluation of the interest and use of internet and social media in patients suffering from colorectal diseases by administering them a questionnaire of 18 items. The results will allow to develop validated communication strategies in step with new technologies.
Currently more than 40 referral centers affiliated to the SICCR have joined the survey and in each center 2 young surgeons, plus 1 senior, will be included as formal coinvestigators and will be PubMed searchable and citable.
Recently I met a young Bosnian colorectal surgeon, dr Faris Odobasic <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> (Fig. 2), who expressed me his idea to create a network for young surgeons of the MSCP. I am very happy and proud that our initiative has stimulated other colleagues to follow our footsteps. The You-SICCR Committee wishes him the best results in his project!
Dr Gaetano Gallo,
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Catanzaro
On Behalf of the Young Group of the Italian Society of Colorectal Surgery (You-SICCR)
Twitter @gae_gallo, @YouSICCR
Linkedin linkedin.com/in/gaetano-gallo-b2a068110
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
1. abcarian h (1999) the time has come. tech coloproctol 3: 3
2. pellino g, martellucci j, campennì p et al (2017) the young group of the italian society of colorectal surgery (you-siccr). tech coloproctol 21: 251
