EAES Annual Report 2019

52 More than 30 years after its introduction into clinical practice the Technology committee, this year, proposes to revisit the concept of minimally invasiveness and the role technology plays in its evolution. The history of the advances in the application of the different technologies through the decades will be analysed. Numerous new technologies are proposed to surgeons and introduced into clinical practice every year, in many cases after a very limited evaluation. The clinical and economic consequences of this phenomenon and the role of surgeons in managing it, represent one of the major challenges we are facing. The 2019 EAES Wintermeeting, a tradition conceived by Prof. Gerhard Buess, focussed on how technology reshaped the treatment in the several areas of general surgery, such as upper and lower GI surgery as well as abdominal wall surgery. The highlights of the Wintermeeting this year were live demonstrations using new technologies in the different districts, to burst discussion on their actual benefit and need and of course, their possible improvements. Expert surgeons and key opinion leaders performed routine surgical procedures using state-of-the-art technologies, such as robotics, hand-held robotics, fluorescence imaging, 3D vision, and more. Moreover, lectures focused on the evolution of training & education, analysing the role of artificial intelligence, social media channels and robotic technology for their improvement. Keynote speakers opened a window to the present and future of training and education perspectives in the digital era. The program was opened in the evening by a lecture at the Royal Academy of Medicine of Sevilla, by EAES president Jaap Bonjer. EAES Annual Report 2019 Wintermeeting: Past, present and future of the concept of minimally invasiveness In the last decades technological innovations such as mobile phones or internet radically changed our life. Technology became the myth of the new millennium and the “reliance” on new technologies increases day by day. The relationship between surgery and technology represents a major role in the future of our profession.