It is a privilege to be the President of the New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons this year.

I would like to congratulate our advancing and newly elected board members.  This includes:  President- Elect: Tracy Pfeiffer, Vice President: Mia Talmor, Treasurer: Scot Glasberg, and Secretary: Steve Fallek. 

I would like to thank John Vaccaro for a superb job as President and I look forward to continuing to work with him as an active member of the Board of Trustees. 

As I reviewed earlier versions of The Excelsior, I have been truly amazed by the evolution of this great Newsletter.  From its infancy, overseen  by Rick Lukash, to its present state transformed by Tracy Pfeiffer, I am astounded by how great it looks and how well it is edited. I commend Tracy  for all the hard work and time she has put in to The Excelsior.  In addition, she has worked extensively with our website designers to really create a truly special site for all our members to enjoy.  The website has become a user-friendly place for information regarding the society and includes our past and upcoming events.  I recommend all to visit it at www.plasticsurgeryny.org. 

An organization such as ours, can not have a smooth transition without the perseverance and hard work of its administrative staff.  In our case our staff consists of one person who is the glue that holds this all together.   Her endless devotion and hard work really is underappreciated. I would like to thank Victoria Morales for being our glue!

Our December 2007 meeting was a great success. Literally it was standing room only!   Dr. Rick D’Amico, the active president of ASPS as well as an active member of NYRSPS, gave a great talk on the present state of the ASPS.   We then had four fantastic speakers present on “Controversies in Plastic Surgery.”  We listened to Diane Duncan talk about injection lipolysis, Jason Pozner speak about trends in non-ablative lasers, Malcolm Paul talk about barbed suture technology, and Daniel Man speak about laser liposuction.    Our May 17, 2008 meeting will be no less impressive.  We will have four facelift presenters. This includes:  Tim Marten, Tom Bell, Victoria Vitale-Lewis, and Ferdinand Becker.  I expect it to be standing room only again!

Resident’s night has always been a fun night to showcase the great resident talent and research that is going on in the tri-state region.  Mia Talmor will again be hosting this event in March 2008 with great judges to match. 

While our society has always emphasized education as its prime initiative, there have been many issues facing our field these past few years both on a local and national level.  ASPS has been trying to push for the creation of state plastic surgery societies around the country to deal with some of each state’s local issues.  Dr. D’Amico addressed this at our December meeting and we are fortunate to have Scot Glasberg on our board and other influential members such as William Rosenblatt, Peter Hetzler, and Malcom Roth who I am sure can help explore this possibility. At our recent executive board meeting, this issue was discussed, and we are considering establishing an advocacy division of the NYRSPS as a possible solution to this ongoing issue.

On another note, we have board meetings several times throughout the year and I encourage all members to get involved and come to these meetings. Please contact Victoria Morales if you are interested in attending.

The lifeblood of our society is our membership, and we appreciate all current members to solicit their colleagues, both in practice and in active residency programs in the tri-state area who are not members, to join. 

 I look forward to a great year !

- Steven Wallach , M.D.
President, New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons