ISHRS World Congress - October 21-23, 2021

Traveling to Lisbon today for the ISHRS World Congress. I've been going to these for a while now. And this time I get to be a bit of host in my home country. :) It's an honor to have many of my esteemed colleagues with me in Portugal. Unfortunately, many could not make it due to the pandemic but will join us online.

I'm excited with the topics we're discussing in this year's program and hope to bring you some interesting updates from the world of trichology and hair restoration surgery.

I'll also be part of the discussion panel for the "Best Practices During a Pandemic" session, hoping to provide a valuable and helpful contribution to it.

Tonight I'll be at the ISHRS Presidents’ Leadership Reception where I hope to meet old friends and enjoy reconnecting offline. :) And tomorrow it's an early rise for the first General Session at 8:30.

Pumped for this!

4th World FUE Institute Workshop - Avignon, France

Last month was the 4th International World FUE Institute 2019 Workshop. A special one for me, since it was one of the workshops that I’ve participated the most in, giving two presentations and performing live surgery. 

The setting for this year’s workshop was Avignon, in France. Quite a beautiful little town in the Provence with a lot of history. Weather was terrific and although we still have to work a lot during these conferences, it feels great to breakout of the routine and visit a wonderful new place, enjoy the weather and the local cuisine, and of course, see our dear friends and colleagues. 

The Avignon Carousel.

It’s funny how similar to school conferences can be. You have the presentations (class) usually very early in the morning with at least one planned coffee-break (recess) where people get to hang-out, so to speak, while hunting down their coffee amidst the crowd that inevitably forms. There are, of course the ones who sneak out just before the recess to get their coffee quicker. And there’s also the social events (basically when you go out with your friends from school), which tend to be when everyone lets loose a bit and has some fun.

Dr. Alejandro Chueco and I.

Dr. Rahal and me probably laughing at something silly while Dr. Muresanu was certainly actually saying something interesting.

As I was saying at the beginning of this post, it was a huge honor and pleasure to attend this workshop as a faculty member. I really enjoyed myself up there during the presentations and how well everyone responded to them. These were done in collaboration with my friend and colleague Dr. José Lorenzo, who keeps coming up with interesting concepts that push forward our understanding of this field.

It’s very tiring as you might imagine. We don’t get as much sleep as a normal work week. There’s just too much stimulus, too much to do, people to see again and catch up with, early lectures to attend to, late dinners and a drink or two. Mind you, I’m not complaining at all. In the end you take with you all the knowledge you shared, all the news you hadn’t caught up with yet, all the laughs and memories that we’ll remember for years to come…and of course, a fresh new injection of oxygen to make your fire for this field burn hotter and brighter than ever.

During one of my presentations.

That’s the cool thing about these meetings. The first thing I want to do after they’re finished is to get inside the O.R. and do surgery to try all the new tips and tricks shared during the workshops, all the gadgets I might’ve brought with me and all the little refinements I realized during the meeting.

Learning from my colleagues.

Now, make no mistake, there’s room for play too, and doctors and staff do play hard as well. Especially at the gala dinner, which is when the workshop is wrapped up, all the work is done and people are ready to partyyy!

This year’s gala dinner was at the lovely Chateau Pont Royal. A beautiful estate with a lot of charm and an amazing sunset in the field. I definitely regretted not bringing my camera, but still took some incredible shots with my iPhone. We had a field day (see what I did there? :P) taking photos with the team. I’ll leave a few photos here.

Gala Dinner.

Extracting at the Workshop.

As Faculty for this year’s workshop, I had the privilege of performing live surgery to demonstrate my extraction and implantation techniques. That meant waking up at an ungodly hour. Haha Fortunately the patient was a really nice guy, very collaborative and I did my best to make him as comfortable as possible when there were so many people going in and out of the room to have a look. He didn’t speak a word of English, so I had to brush up on my French. 

It felt really good for me. I’ve always admired the doctors who showed their skills at these workshops and now I get to be one of them. The surgery itself went really well and I think the patient will end up with a great result. He was a really good sport, so shoutout to him.

Focus. Implanting at the Workshop.

Discussing our plan for the patient with Dr. Lorenzo.

The last ones to leave the clinic. It was a long day, as you can probably tell. From left to right: myself, Ana, Dr. José Lorenzo, Dr. Jerry Wong, Bea, Lorena, Cristina. Behind the camera: Mike Etienne.

All in all, it was a great little week and I’m already looking forward to next year’s workshop in Istambul, Turkey.

But first, we have the ISHRS World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. And I’m sure that will be incredible as well.

Until next time!

3rd World FUE Institute Workshop - Lisbon, Portugal

Meetings are always a privilege to attend. You get to see your friends who share your passion for hair transplant surgery, share knowledge, learn new things and improve your own ideas. It's also a good time to meet new people in the field and hang out.

This one was no different. I had the honor of being from the hosting country - Portugal - and was delighted to serve and help everyone I could to feel as much as home as possible and guide them through some of the best things my country has to offer. (Mostly great food and wine. he he)

The meeting brought some really interesting subjects. Some new things and ideas were presented and some old concepts looked like they were on their way out. It's always amazing to see how much we're still advancing in the field of hair restoration and how much passion there is for it. It's something I'm very happy to be a part of. 

The World FUE Institute is becoming, with each meeting, a more vibrant community, and this meeting we saw the number of attendees practically doubling, which is a good indicator of how much it is growing and how much new interest there is in it.

One of the highlights was when Dr. Lupanzula kindly gifted a ceremonial shirt, typical from his home country, Congo, to each of the doctors who had complimented him on his shirt at last year's meeting in Athens, Greece. I remember saying we should all wear our shirts at this year's cocktail reception, and so we did. We had a blast!

We have already set a time and place for the next meeting: Avignon, France in June 2018. Should be awesome.

From left to right: Dr. Emorane Lupanzula, Dr. Jerry Wong, Dr. Tony Ruston, Dr. José Lorenzo, myself, Dr. Koray Erdogan

Dr. Joop is always our selfie photography expert.

Workshops are always a good time to share knowledge.