Bruce J. Leavitt, MD

The sun is setting a bit earlier in the evening now and the nights are cooler. The air conditioner in the bedroom window has been turned off and the window opened bringing in fresh, cooler air. That means that fall is approaching as well as our 98th Annual Meeting. Summer in New England is short and I hope that everyone made the most of the beautiful weather in our exceptional part of the world... More...

Thomas J. Miner, MD

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity. Albert Camus used the myth of Sisyphus as an example of the absurd hero and suggested that the gods had “thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.” The central concern of The Myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls “the absurd.” Camus claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe (meaning, order, or reason) and what we find in the universe (chaos) and concludes that life is meaningless. If life has no meaning, does that mean life is not worth living? Recently, I've noticed more references to Sisyphus during conversations regarding our profession and more specifically on surgical education... More...

Join us for the 2017 Annual Meeting, September 8-10, at the Omni Mount Washington in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. An exciting program has been assembled... More...

Walter E. Longo, MD

Dear NESS Membership:

Back to Bretton Woods, always a membership favorite. This year the program committee has received a tremendous number of quality abstracts, of which those accepted will be considered for publication. The competition continues to be keen for those that ultimately will go into print... More...