President's Message

It is truly an honor and privilege to become the next president of the International Society of Diseases of the Esophagus. I am coming after there have been many significant and important changes to the organization that have been instituted by the previous president, Dr. Jeffrey Peters and the executive director Dr. Mark Ferguson. They have truly worked very hard to further evolve this society operationally into an international collaboration of physicians who are dedicated to esophageal diseases. The World Congress in Vancouver is a testament to the hard work of its current leadership. It is a daunting task to take over from such accomplished leaders in the field.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Professors Andre Duranceau and Tom DeMeester who first introduced me to this society in Montreal at it Seventh World Congress in 1998. Their vision to move the society from its surgical base to encompass all esophageal focusedgroups really have set the stage for the society to advance this society to its current stage. It is a major future direction of the society to continue this trend. The journal, under the leadership of Dr. John Pandolfino and Andre Duraneau has flourished.The journal is to be congratulated for receiving its highest impact score ever of 2.057.We have recently appointed Dr. Giovanni Zaninotto from Imperial College - St Mary’s Hospital in London, which continues the tradition of having a surgical and medical editor for the journal that was started with the appointment of Dr. Claude Deschamps and myself as editors.

This combination of gastroenterologists and surgeons really poises the society to take leadership in the coming years as the procedures that are being proposed truly have crossed the artificial boundaries between the specialties. Surgeons have become more like flexible endoscopists with the development of laparoscopic and thoracoscopic tools. Gastroenterologists have begun to perform myotomies and resections that previously could only be performed surgically. The formation of teams of both endoscopists and surgeons has led to the development of new techniques that enrich the lives of our patients through even more minimally invasive techniques in treating the esophagus.

Novel investigations in the submucosal space has led to imaging of the neural networks in the esophagus that will allow even further definition of esophageal diseases. It is clear that in the near future, even better imaging devices that are targeted towards the esophagus will be available that have the potential to make a great deal of impact to the treatment of esophageal diseases. I look forward to helping lead the Society over the next two years during which even more advances in our area will occur. My goal will be to continue to evolve our Society with advances in gastroenterology, thoracic surgery, pathology, radiology and oncology to create the perfect esophageal team. The ISDE is uniquely qualified to achieve this goal with its multidisciplinary international base that can lead this effort.

Sincerely,

Kenneth K. Wang, MD
ISDE President 2014 - 2016