Bali, Indonesia, December 11th-14th, 2013
I would like to begin by saying how honored and appreciative I am to be able to invite you to attend the upcoming 17th World Congress of the International Society of Cryosurgery in Bali, Indonesia, one of the most naturally beautiful provinces in Indonesia.
At our last ISC World Congress, the 16thWorld Congress in Vienna, we revitalized and renewed the legal and democratic principles for the current and future development of the International Society of Cryosurgery which at the same time also marked the beginning of a new period in the history of the ISC. The beginning of this new chapter has led us to renew our expectations, initiatives and visions with respect to the constructive progress that should take place within the ISC as well as in the interdisciplinary cooperation among the fields of modern cryoscience, cryomedicine, cryosurgery and cryotechnology.
The elected ISC President and Board of Governors of course continue to work hard on behalf of and for the advancement of the ISC. At this juncture I would like and am proud to present you with a run-down of the main objectives set out and achieved in the time period since November 2011 through to the present. There are as follows:
Since the 1st International Congress of Cryosurgery in Vienna, Austria (06/1972), the International Society of Cryosurgery (ISC) and current official bylaws of the ISC were legitimately enacted on October 7th 2011 in Vienna, Austria and voted on in the General Assembly of the ISC, Session 1, in the Hofburg, Redouten Hall, Vienna, Austria on Sunday, October 30th
A total of 27 ISC Newsletters (i.e. more than one monthly) were sent out on a regular basis by ISC headquarters to all members of the ISC with important messages and information relating to the fields of modern cryoscience, cryomedicine, cryosurgery and cryo hi-tech
The Affiliated Collaborated Agreements were successfully signed between ISC and the Asian Society of Cryosurgery (ASC), Japan Society for Low Temperature Medicine (JSLTM), American College of Cryosurgery (ACC), Indonesian Cryosurgery Society (ISC), International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR)
A total of 12 World and National Conferences, Annual Meetings and International Seminars on Modern CRYO were prepared and organized and held in collaboration with ISC Bodies in China, Japan, Austria, USA, Russia, Indonesia
The new official website of the ISC, www.isc.cryosurgery.at, went online on November 3rd, 2011, and provides a wide variety of information, news and historical facts to do with ISC. The website has proved to be enormously popular with an all-time record of 3224 visits in March 2013 and 2626 visits in July 2013 as well as nearly 40 000 (39 458) visits in total from the top 25 countries from around the world. The total statistical summary indicates almost 100 000 (98 517) clicked-on pages and more than 580,000 (580,263) hits on the ISC website
Numerous original papers were published on the subject of modern CRYO by members of the ISC in the top international and national peer-reviewed journals, which include PubMed. The editor-in-chief of the Journal of Low Temperature Medicine, Prof. Dr. Sajio Sumida, Tokyo, Japan, has regularly published the very latest and most important advice and information from the ISC as well as original papers on modern CRYO
The book “Modern Cryosurgery for Cancer”, Editors Kecheng Xu, Nikolai N. Korpan, Lizhi Niu, Publisher World Scientific, New JerseyLondonSingapore, 903 pages was published in 2012. “Certainly it has been a huge effort to create such a complete piece of work. I think it is an extraordinary contribution to Cryosurgery and Cryomedicine”. Dr. Juana Elida Mauro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25, 2012
Under the stewardship of the ISC Presidents and Board of Governors together with ISC Headquarters, festivities and scientific meetings were arranged to mark the birthdays of Prof. Dr. Andy Gage, USA, Prof. Dr. Sajio Sumida, Japan, Dr. Akira Hoki, Japan, Prof. Dr. John Baust, USA, Past President of the ISC Dr. Jean-Paul Homasson, France
Furthermore, the upcoming ISC 17th World Congress in Bali will be one of the creative and informative scientific events this year and will bring together young researchers and well-known leaders in the field from across the globe and allow them to share their latest insights, research results and clinical experiences within the framework of CRYO 2013.
On the occasion of the upcoming ISC 17th World Congress, I would like to express to all members of the ISC, colleagues and friends our most heart-felt thanks for the support you have given and the kindness you have shown to the ISC for the past years.
Finally, it is with great pride and pleasure that I close my speech by cordially inviting all of you to attend our 17th World Congress of the ISC in Bali which will focus on the structural discussion areas such as the future evolution of the ISC and the continued improvement of our efforts to benefit human medicine and science.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nikolai N. Korpan
President of the ISC
July 2013