To master the art of hand surgery, highly specialized education and training is necessary. Most hand surgeons will have had initial experience in general, orthopedic or plastic surgery, before getting further specialized training in hand surgery. Moreover, certain techniques, scientific and/or organizational issues, may inspire to a specific focus within hand surgery specialization.
The Relationship Committee of FESSH is dedicated to actively facilitate external and internal relations with other scientific organizations and FESSH Groups with specific interests in hand surgery related subspecialties to exchange knowledge and collaborate on scientific and educational activities.
The Relationship Committee is your permanent connection with a variety of related scientific societies in Europe. We collaborate with surgery societies such as EFORT (orthopedic) and ESPRAS (plastic) to support the recognition of our specialty and coordinate further training and education in hand surgery. We also connect to closely related scientific societies such as EFSHT (therapy). We aim to promote the importance and value of our specialty within member countries and UEMS, the European Union of Medical Specialists, where hand surgery is currently recognized as an “added qualification”. FESSH is also looking outside of Europe, and we connect with (inter)national hand societies from all over the world, with one main goal in mind: continuously learn from each other to improve the care we give to our patients.
The FESSH Groups are initiated by groups of hand surgeons with specific interests in a hand surgery related topic, who want to exchange knowledge and collaborate on scientific and educational activities. The FESSH Groups have no direct relationship with or funding through commercial parties. They are part of FESSH and have a representative who is a member of and reports to the Relationship Committee. They can apply for administrative and financial support from FESSH for specific projects by submitting to the committees chair, and submissions will be discussed for approval in the FESSH Council. With the FESSH Groups, we aim to facilitate the increase of knowledge and improve health care for our patients in hand surgery.
Ilse Degreef, MD, PhD, chair of the Relationship Committee, is clinical head of the hand surgery unit at Leuven University Hospitals and full professor of orthopaedics and hand surgery at Leuven University, Belgium. She graduated at Medicine in 1997 and at Orthopaedic Surgery in 2003. She specialized in hand, elbow and microsurgery with a special interest in Dupuytren’s disease and elbow pathology and obtained her PhD degree in 2009 on Dupuytren disease. Dr Degreef obtained the EBHS Diploma in 2012. She has established the Belgian Hand Surgery Certificate (BHSC) with all Belgian universities, which she coordinates since 2018. Since 2022, she became the president of the Belgian Hand group and was elected to the nominating committee of the IFSSH together with Peter Amadio. She is a member of multiple international hand societies such as BSSH, AHHS, ASSH, FESSH and IFSSH and benchmarked on a regular basis with visits in, among others, Mayo Clinic, Sydney University, Adelaide University and Kleinert Institute and with yearly exminations on Hand Surgery Skills at ASSH. At this moment, she is a part-time researcher on Dupuytren disease after obtaining National Grants to make this possible. Professor Degreef has published well over a 100 articles in international scientific journals, co-authored several books, provided many international presentations and functions daily as a reviewer of 20 international academic journals.
Nicholas Riley co-chair, was born in the UK and qualified from St. Barts and the Royal London School of Medicine in 2001. He undertook his early post-graduate training in London, before completing his senior Orthopaedic training in Oxford. He was subsequently awarded the Oxford Hand Surgery Fellowship and obtained the British Diploma in Hand Surgery in 2016. Following visiting fellowships at the Mayo Clinic and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York he was appointed as a Consultant Hand and Wrist Surgeon in Oxford. He has a tertiary referral hand and wrist surgery practice with a subspecialty interest in complex fracture treatment, scaphoid non-union, complex hand and wrist infection and the management of degenerative change in the hand and wrist. Mr Riley contributes to the work of the FESSH Relationship Committee representing FESSH in the EBOT Examination Committee.
Aurelio Portincasa was born in Italy where he had his medical and plastic surgery training, followed by further fellowships in Vienna, Austria and Atlanta and San Francisco in the USA. He is professor and director of the Unit of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Foggia. He regularly gives presentations at national and international meetings and is the author of over 330 scientific publications. He is the General Secretary of the European Board of Hand Surgery (EBHS), member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (ESPRAS), member of the Examination Committee of the European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (EBOPRAS) and delegate to the European Union of Medical Specialists (U.E.M.S.) for this society. His function within the Relationship Committee focuses on the relation with ESPRAS and U.E.M.S.
Guillem Salva-Coll is the lead clinician of the Hand Unit of the Hospital Universitari Son Espases and co-director of IBACMA-Balearic Institute for Hand Surgery in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He went to Medical School in Barcelona and specialized in Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery in 1998. He obtained the Diploma in Vascular and Nervous Microsurgery in The Experimental Surgery Centre of Mutua SAT, Sabadell, Barcelona, in 2000. He had further training in Hand and Wrist Surgery in the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, USA, June 1999; in the Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Surgery of the Hand, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, May 2001, in the Pulvertaft Hand Center, Derby, UK, in September 2011, and august 2014 and in the Birmingham Hand Centre, Queen’s Elisabeth Hospital, UK, in august 2016. Guillem Salva-Coll received the European Board Hand Surgery Diploma in 2005 in Göteborg, Sweden. He was a Board Member of the Spanish Society for Surgery of the Hand (SECMA) from 2015 to 2019 and president of the SECMA Congress held in Palma de Mallorca in 2013. He was Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Hand Surgery European Volume from January 2016 to December 2019, and up to date he is reviewer of the Journal of Hand Surgery European Volume, Journal of Hand Surgery American, Journal of Wrist Surgery and Revista Iberoamericana de Cirugía de Mano. He is Associate Professor of Anatomy and Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine of the UIB-Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain, since 2016. His main field of research is biomechanics and neuromuscular control of carpal stability. He is an active member of the SECMA- Spanish Society for Surgery of the Hand and contributes to the Spanish Diploma in Hand Surgery program. His function within the Relationship Committee, among other, focuses on the relation with the South American Hand Societies.
Sami Hassan went to medical school at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He completed both his core and higher orthopaedic residency from the East Midlands (North) rotation in the UK. He then undertook hand surgery fellowships at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, followed by the Pulvertaft Hand Centre in Derby. He was also awarded the BSSH Travelling Fellowship to visit the Robert. A Chase Hand Centre, University of Stanford in California, which enhanced his exposure to hand and wrist surgery, particularly trauma. In 2019 he has successfully obtained both the British and European Hand Diplomas. His appointment to the Relationship Committee will allow him to work closely with EFORT, and to contribute to the hand & wrist section of the European Board of Orthopaedic Traumatology exam.
Francesco Romagnoli, OT, past President of EFSHT (the European Federation of Societies for Hand therapy) is the owner of FRT Hand Therapy Clinic in Parma and many other cities in Italy. He is a Scientific Researcher for University of Brescia (UNIBS) in the field of hand therapy and prevention in work-related upper limb disorders; a Contract Lecturer for University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) and for Al-Manara university of Syria in the field of upper limb biomechanics, pathologies, therapy treatments and splint construction. He often volunteers on international missions with NGOs and the United Nations, aimed at educating both students and professionals about hand therapy. He regularly gives presentations and lectures at national and international meetings and in specific one-year courses in Italy and Europe. He had his personal OT graduation and hand therapy training in Modena (Italy), and mainly in Malmoe (Sweden) and Barcelona (Spain). He is an active member of Italian Association of Hand therapists (AIRM) and his purpose inside the Relationship Committee is to improve the surgeon-therapist connection even more and more deeply.
Ahmed Elgammal, MD, PhD, member of the Relationship Committee, senior consultant of the hand surgery unit in Helios clinic in Munich und Ass. Professor of orthopedic und trauma surgery in Ain shams university hospital in Cairo, Egypt.
Luciana Marzella is the head of the hand trauma and microsurgery service at Galeazzi Sant’Ambrogio Hospital Milan. She graduated from the medical school in 2001 and specialized in Orhopaedic and Traumatology in 2006. Resident at the Institut de La Main in Paris in 2005-2006. In 2015 Doctor Marzella obtained the EBSH Diploma and in 2016 the Microsurgery Diploma at the Columbia University, New York followed in 2017 by the Advanced Microsurgery Diploma again at the Columbia University in New York. Doctor Marzella is Teacher and Co-ordinator of the SICM Anatomy Dissection Course from 2019 to Present day. Her major interest is in Hand and Wrist traumatic and elective pathologies and Vascular Malformations of the Upper Limb. She provided many national and international presentations. Doctor Marzella is frequently called as guest in many National TV shows dedicated to health information.
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