SICOT e-Newsletter - April 2017: SICOT News 1

SICOT News

SICOT is awarded the medal of the French Academy of Surgery

Henri Judet
Past President of the National Academy of Surgery of France - Paris, France

I have the pleasure of announcing that on 11 January 2017 SICOT was honoured by the National Academy of Surgery of France. Historically called the Royal Academy of Surgery, this Academy was founded in 1731 by King Louis XV at the request of Georges Mareschal, Head Surgeon at the “Hôpital de la Charité” in Paris.

It had two objectives:

- to have surgeons recognised as equal to doctors, who considered them "clerks and servants" and kept them away from University;
- to have a place to study, discuss, and disclose new surgical methods.

Mareschal was its first President and the Academy was set up in an amphitheatre which was built in 1694 by the architect Joubert and still exists today at 5 Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine.

Its reputation spread rapidly and its publication, "The Memoirs of the Academy", was read throughout Europe. In view of this success and at the King's request, the architect Gondouin built a new amphitheatre in 1774, still on Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, which was to become a Faculty of Medicine under the First Empire. In 1793, the Revolution suppressed all the Academies. The Academy of Surgery did not regain its title of Academy until 1935 and became National in 1997.

It is managed by a Bureau, elected by a Board of Directors, currently of 24 members. Associate and Full Members are elected by the General Assembly according to their CV and upon application. There are about 350 members. From 70 years of age onwards, they may apply for Honorary membership. In addition, there are currently 166 foreign Associates and Honorary Members, who have been chosen for their exceptional reputation.

The Academy holds a meeting once a week, on Wednesdays. The meetings include papers with discussions on technical, institutional, legal or organisational topics related to Surgery. They are published in the form of electronic dissertations (over 1 million consultations per year) and are fully recorded and transmitted via video on the fully accessible website of the Academy (www.academie-chirurgie.fr) with 800 consultations per day.

The Academy wishes to bring together the best surgeons of all specialties, namely those who have honoured our profession through their work and their innovations. Guardian of history, guarantor of ethics, rigorous evaluator of technical developments, integrating all modern aspects of surgery, associated with institutional reforms, attached to the training of young students, and attentive to legal developments, the Academy can present itself as the "House of Surgeons".

During the solemn session on 11 January 2017, the Academy Medal was awarded to SICOT by the then President of the Academy, Henri Judet. The medal was awarded to Maurice Hinsenkamp, Past President of SICOT, with a large delegation composed of Jacques Caton, Jean-Pierre Courpied, Jacques Duparc, Philippe Hernigou, Dominique Poitout and Thami Benzakour, all of them members of the Academy and SICOT. The Secretary General of SICOT, Jochen Eulert, was also present.

This recognition bears witness to the strong links that exist between the Academy and SICOT ever since the foundation of the latter. Already in October 1929, at Hotel Crillon, two of the founders of SICOT were Presidents of the Academy: Louis Ombredanne and Etienne Sorrel. Two of the Academy members were also Presidents of SICOT: Louis Ombredanne and Robert Merle d'Aubigné.

The Academy and SICOT share the same objectives for the improvement of science, research and education in Orthopaedics and Traumatology.