Welcome to the website of the Asian Society for Gynecologic Robotic Surgery, the ASGRS! As President of this young and vibrant society, let me offer you my personal welcome as you explore this space to find out more about us and gynecologic robotic surgery in Asia! The Board of the Asian Society for Gynecologic Robotic Surgery was officially constituted on August 18, 2015. The Board and Founding Membership of the ASGRS are made up of like-minded surgeons from all across Asia with an agenda to help level up surgical healthcare in their own countries and throughout Asia through collaboration, study and advocacy within the larger framework of Asian organized medicine. We are a young society but we have set the bar high for ourselves. Our aim is no less lofty than for robotic surgery to be the standard of care in Asia for women who require gynecologic surgery. Robotic surgery is considered the standard of care in many developed healthcare environments or least considered an established surgical option. However, in many countries across Asia, women are still denied this option by payers and regulators on the basis that robotic surgery is “experimental”. This is patently wrong and the ASGRS is committed to making this right for the women that we care for in Asia. Each Member of the Board and every Founding Member believes in the potential that robotic technology has to significantly improve the standard of women’s surgical healthcare in Asia. That is why we are committed to building a narrative that is consistent, evidence-based, and progressive about robotic surgical technology in the care of Asian women that is cost-efficient, safe and sustainable. My founding Board and I are proud of our service on behalf of all the women we take care of, with each and every Member of the Board a pioneer in gynecologic robotic surgery in Asia. We are committed to making robotic surgery accessible to every woman in Asia who can benefit from this technology. The Society was also built under the aegis of training and education. As a group, we believe that great care begins with equipping surgeons with competence and good sense, qualities that can only be developed with fastidious mentorship, attention to detail in an atmosphere of edifying collegiality. This is why the Society exists as a framework within which knowledge and skills are readily exchanged and the flow of ideas is unhindered by institutional and national barriers. As President of this Asian society, I am pleased that there is a healthy attitude of curiosity and open learning where conventional wisdom is challenged to make way for innovation and creativity. The Society was built with you in mind, the Asian gynecologic surgeon, to create a forum for like-minded, innovative and motivated professionals to share, to collaborate and to provide mutual support. Robotic surgery in Asia is on the ascendant with an ever-growing number of world-class expert surgeons and it is timely that the Asian Society for Gynecologic Robotic Surgery provides a conduit to connect all this expertise, channeling it into a force for change, for innovation and for a higher standard of women’s surgical healthcare in Asia and the World! I urge you to take up service in the Society and to join me and colleagues all over Asia as we move forward together in the Asian Society for Gynecologic Robotic Surgery! With membership today begins a lifetime of fulfilling service, learning and fruitful collaboration!
Sincerely, Joseph S. Ng President Asian Society for Gynecologic Robotic Surgery
