The National Plastic Surgery Day (India) is now World Plastic Surgery Day!
On this day in 2011, National Plastic Surgery Day (India) was conceptualised and instituted by APSI (Association of Plastic Surgeons of India) to promote activities around India focussed on increasing awareness about our specialty, i.e. Plastic Surgery, in the general public and also medical professionals from other specialties.
How did this ‘Day’ start?
We often discuss how Plastic Surgery is so poorly understood, not just by people/community at large, but also by medical students, physicians and surgeons of other specialties.
To change this status quo, in 2011, Dr S Raja Sabapathy, the then APSI president, conceptualised the idea of National Plastic Surgery Day which was approved by APSI executive council. Subsequently, a three-member team from APSI met the then Health Minister of India and got a formal endorsement from the Government of India. Since then for the last 1 decade, we, the Plastic surgeons in India, have been celebrating this day and making efforts to raise awareness regarding the entire spectrum of Plastic Surgery.
Why July 15?
Maharshi Sushruta is considered the ‘The Father of Plastic Surgery’. Hence, any day related to him, like his birthday, would ideally be the obvious choice. But Maharshi Sushruta belonged to before 600BC and we have no consensus on his birth date. The next probable date, i.e. when the APSI was formed (registered), was in the latter part of the year. That’s close to when the annual meeting is conducted and so not considered appropriate to meet the objective. Hence, the leadership then (APSI, 2011) were in search of a non-controversial day, that does not clash with any other national function or festival, a day when safe weather is present in most parts of India, and when it will be easy for the Association to carry on the activities that we decide- preferable in mid-year. 15th July met all the above criteria and was agreed upon by the APSI members, and hence selected.
How did ‘National’ become ‘World’?
During the ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons) Global Leadership Forum meeting on 16th April 2021 which was attended by leaders (plastic surgeons) from 35 countries, the APSI president- Dr Rakesh Khazanchi, introduced the concept behind the ‘National Plastic Surgery’ (its genesis and importance) which we have been celebrating in India on 15th July since the last 10 years. He also made a plea that this day be commemorated as ‘World Plastic Surgery Day’ by the member countries as a step towards advocating plastic surgery. This suggestion was very well received by many member countries. Further correspondence followed with ASPS and eventually it was confirmed that World Plastic Surgery Day will be celebrated on 15th July every year from 2021!
Yearly round-up at PlaRecon
Since 15 July 2020, on this day- we have started updating our yearly progress.
Over the last year (15 July- 2020 to 2021), we were able to add 17 new articles in 6 categories. We also experimented with medical illustration, video editing and created 3 video tutorials (do check them out on our YouTube channel and subscribe for more). We also posted more than 85 webinar/meeting updates and sent 17 weekly email newsletters from December 2020 onwards. The website was also redesigned and refined further.
Happy 11th National and 1st World Plastic Surgery Day 2021 everyone!
-Dev from PlaRecon.
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