Dear IGCS Member,
It is with great excitement that I announce the Middle East and Mediterranean Association of Gynecologic Oncologists (MEMAGO) as our latest organization to join the IGCS Strategic Alliance Partner Program.
IGCS and MEMAGO leaders met to discuss the partnership at the recent ESGO Meeting in Vienna and the PARSGO Meeting in Marrakech. The region is rich with opportunities to collaborate, including research initiatives and newly formed training programs.
Currently, MEMAGO has approximately 275 members throughout Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunsinia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. MEMAGO was founded in 2015 during the Lebanese Gynecologic Oncology Group (LGOG) Meeting in Beirut with the leadership of Dr. Ali Ayhan and the endeavor of Turks, Lebanese and other Arabs participating in the meeting. The LGOG leadership present included Honorary President, Professor Georges Chahine (medical oncologist), Executive President, Muhieddine Seoud (gynecologic oncologist), and Vice President, David Atallah (gynecologic oncologist). Currently, Dr. Ali Ayhan (Turkey) serves as the MEMAGO President and Dr. M. Faruk Kose (Turkey) serves as the Secretary.
The Association was conceived to include all gynecologic oncologists of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries in one society, to spread knowledge about female cancers and help all countries develop standards of care and best clinical practices. These countries have informative and precious data that is often overlooked by larger societies and organizations with data coming from western and more developed countries.
In the Mediterranean and Middle East, some of the major goals are to standardize patient management and to spread these standards to all areas in the region. Due to this new partnership between MEMAGO and IGCS, the societies will work together to offer more opportunities for training and help bring new techniques and technologies to areas of the region.
IGCS will be collaborating with MEMAGO on their 4th Congress to be held in Abu Dhabi October 11-12, 2019.
Please join me in welcoming our newest members from the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Sincerely yours,
Mary Eiken, RN, MS
IGCS CEO