UPDATE - 14 September 2007

Hello TASSL Members:

We would like to thank everyone for making our First Annual TASSL Meeting such a booming success. We are grateful for the genuine sharing of information and active participation by all of the institutions. We very much hope to successfully implement the collaborative projects that we discussed, and encourage ongoing interaction between our members. And, we owe Covidien, and especially Tristan Kersh, a big thank you for their ongoing support and assistance.

Here are a few follow-up items:

  1. Member List: Member lists
    If necessary, edit and send changes to tristan.kersh@covidien.com who has offered to maintain the list (Thank you Tristan!). Once finalized, we will distribute the updated version and post it on our website.

  2. Nominations for the 2008-2009 President position: This individual will organize and host the 2009 meeting at their institution. If you wish to be nominated, please forward this request to Constance.Johnson@UTSouthwestern.edu. We will collect all of the nominations and subsequently conduct voting by email. The 2008-2009 President will be asked to serve on the Executive Council, as well as our 'runners up.' Also, if you are not interested in serving as president but would like to serve on the Executive Council, please send us this request as well.

  3. Next TASSL Annual Meeting: Please mark your calendars! Our next TASSL Annual Meeting will be held at UT Southwestern in Dallas on September 5, 2008; we will again have a dinner on the evening before the meeting. As was decided at the business meeting, Danny Scott will serve as the 2007-2008 President and organize this meeting.

  4. TASSL Dinner at ASE/APDS: Covidien will sponsor a dinner for our members during the ASE/APDS meeting in Toronto at 7pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Please RSVP to tristan.kersh@covidien.com for this dinner.

  5. Collaborative Projects: As discussed at the meeting, we would very much like to encourage our members to pursue collaboration on the 1) Open Knot-tying and Suturing and 2) FLS studies. Please contact Danny Scott (Daniel.Scott@UTSouthwestern) or Lisa Hollett (Lisa.Hollett@UTSouthwestern.edu) for any questions or help. At the dinner in April during the ASE/APDS meeting we will review our group’s progress on implementation of these curricula. Please also feel free to 'package' and distribute other collaborative projects to our members at any point in time.

Again, thanks to all for keeping the momentum of TASSL alive.

Daniel J. Scott, MD, Associate Professor
Director, Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery
UT Southwestern Medical Center Department of Surgery
5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390-9156
214-648-2677 office | 214-648-2301 fax | Email
Website: http://www.UTSouthwestern.edu/SCMIS