Dear Colleagues,
Once again it is time to add the ISHRS Annual Scientific Meeting
to your fall schedule. This year’s meeting will be in San Francisco,
a city of diverse cultures, fine seafood, great jazz, sailing,
museums, beaches, and of course the nearby Napa wine country.
Consider joining your ISHRS colleagues on one of the optional
tours designed to highlight the magic of this great city.
One of the important strengths of the ISHRS is the diversity
of our membership. Physicians from many specialties, each
contributing a different perspective and approach to hair restoration surgery, have
accelerated the development of therapeutic technologies so we can provide our patients
with the most natural looking results. The ISHRS is by far the most academically sharing
specialty organization with which I have been privileged to affiliate.
Following this educational model, Dr. Robert True has assembled an outstanding
faculty of member and guest speakers that will provide the latest information on all
aspects of hair follicle physiology, hair restoration pharmacology, and medical and
surgical therapeutics for hair loss patients. This year we will hear from Dr. Vera Price
on “Cicatricial Alopecia: What You Should Know About the Many Different Types,”
Dr. Wayne Hellstrom will provide a “Urologist’s Perspective on Post Finasteride
Syndrome,” Dr. Colin Jahoda will educate us on “Hair Follicle Cloning, Regeneration, and
Other Prospective Developments for the Transplant Clinic – Where Are We Now?”
in the Norwood Lecture, and in the Advances in Hair Biology Lecture we will hear
from Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong on “Extra-Follicular Environmental Modulation of Hair
Regeneration.” As you know, our membership has grown to 1,200 members, yet in spite
of limiting our abstract submission to only two per member, we still had a record number
of abstracts submitted – over 150. Accordingly, we will hear from a number of our
member colleagues on their successes, innovations, and best practices.
This year’s program will also offer new opportunities to communicate and learn from
those who are most knowledgeable about their inventions, but ineligible to teach in
programs with CME credit attached because of their conflicts of interest. Hands-on FUE
Mini-Courses with Drs. John Cole, James Harris and José Lorenzo have been designed
to allow our members to interact directly with these insightful and inventive minds, to
better understand the appropriate use of their innovative technologies.
The ISHRS has a long history of having big parties; indeed we provide a healthy food
and beverage budget for a relatively small professional organization. The San Francisco
meeting will be no different, offering many opportunities to socialize, catch up with old
friends, and of course make new friends. This year the entire membership will be invited
to an After Gala President’s Jam Session, where all the musician members are invited to
bring their instruments or voice, and just hang and have fun through music.
Tony Bennett “left his heart in San Francisco”, but I am sure that if you come, you will
take home new insights about your specialty and many great memories of fun times with
new and old friends. Please join us.
Warmest regards,
Carlos J. Puig, DO, President
International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
