Another year, another edition of SKY meeting!

In these difficult times, SKY thrives and makes its 5th anniversary! So, this year’s edition will be a special one.

The main topic will be Robotic Surgery and it couldn’t be a more appropriate and current theme, since our hospital will have its first robot (DaVinci) at the beginning of next year. The participants will have the opportunity to contact with DaVinci Robot console and simulate surgery in it! Will be a great time to make the near future, today’s present!

We’re back to the normal format, although we kept the online access for the international participants. In the scientific program, we will have world-renowned professors, both international and national. In the Keynote Lectures, we will have the honour to be lectured by Professor Han-Kwang Yang, from Seoul National University Hospital, about robotic gastrectomy in gastric cancer. Professor Yang is an expert in this field, being one of the surgeons and researchers in the world with more experience, expertise and volume (about 1000 cases per year) in treating gastric cancer patients! In the second Keynote Lecture, we will have a very interesting presentation about the future of surgery, focusing on robotics, telesurgery and augmented reality. For this, we will have a visionary urologic surgeon, Professor Estevão Lima, that is a pioneer and an innovator in the application of new technologies in the field of minimally invasive surgery!

Keeping the innovations from the last edition, we will have the Meeting the Professor Lecture, where we will explore the different pathways for our medical career and experience abroad.

Doctor Sofia Castro, who was previously a resident of our hospital’s surgery department, finished her residency in Belgium, at Gent University Hospital and continued investing in her formation and differentiation by completing several fellowships (Tielt, Ghent, Bruges and Lisbon), in different areas of gastrointestinal robotic surgery. She will lecture us on the opportunities and expectations of working abroad and the prospect of returning home later.

In the Named Lecture, we will remember Professor Pinto da Costa, an internationally recognized expert in Forensic Medicine, who, unfortunately, has already left us. He was also a very important and symbolic character of our city! We will keep in mind the purpose of this lecture: “To be a Professor is to be remembered by the future!”.

Since practice is key in the surgical field, we will have Recorded Surgery Sessions, exploring a more practical aspect of surgical knowledge. Professor Pedro Gouveia, a breast surgeon and researcher, will show us step-by-step the application of artificial intelligence and augmented reality in the surgical treatment of breast cancer!

We will maintain the same principle of covering the different surgical subspecialties. This year will have General Surgery (hepatobiliary, colorectal and bariatrics), Urology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Ophthalmology topics in the Plenary and Parallel Sessions. We will have the opportunity to contact international experts from renowned hospitals (namely St Marks Hospital, a world reference in colorectal surgery), that will share their experience and expertise in robotic surgery. We will also learn from our national experts, especially the ones that already have the opportunity of using the robot in the treatment of their patients.

We will have a practical approach to surgical knowledge with a variety of Hands-on Workshops, where participants will have the opportunity to put into practice all the teachings they learned at the SKY Meeting 5.0!

Finally, after all the surgical knowledge… we will have a more relaxed moment with an informal dinner with cultural moment, where networking and socialization will be the main course!

Despite all the difficulties associated with today’s world, we have to move forward, because the SKY is the limit! I hope everyone enjoys this year’s SKY and have the best experience ever… to be a surgeon willing to learn and always improve!