History of the European Salivary Gland Society (ESGS) and genesis of the Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society – MSGS
The idea for the creation of a European Salivary Gland Society (ESGS) was initiated by Professor Francis Marchal from Geneva in 2002. He subsequently approached international leaders of ORL, HNS, specialized in the field of salivary gland diseases : Professor E. Stennert from Cologne (Germany), Prof E. Myers from Pittsburgh (USA), Professor R. Morton from Auckland (New Zealand), Professor P. Bradley from Birmingham (Great Britain), Professor C. O’Brien from Sydney (Australia). All accepted with enthusiasm to support a Society dealing with Salivary Glands.
The initial idea was not only to target surgeons, but to involve any medical or basic science specialty that dealt with saliva or salivary gland problems. Therefore, important international leaders in their respective fields were contacted and entered the board of the European Salivary Gland Society. They met with their first board meeting in Geneva in 2006.
The founding board meeting was held in July 2007 during the congress of the EUFOS (European Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies) and the EAORL (European Academy of ORL-HNS), in Vienna, Austria.
During this same meeting EUFOS and EAORL merged into one body, CEORL-HNS (Confederation Européenne/European Confederation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies).
The purposes of ESGS that were coined at the outset remain very actual and include:
To bring together expert clinicians and researchers from a wide array of disciplines who have an interest in basic and clinical sciences, as well as diagnostic or therapeutics related to the salivary glands, including, but not limited to
- Surgery (ORL Head Neck, Oral Maxillofacial, Plastic and Reconstructive)
- Radiology
- Radiotherapy
- Pathology
- Basic Research
- Dentistry
- Rheumatology
- Immunology
- Molecular Biology
exchange and disseminate knowledge and information about basic and clinical science pertinent to saliva, salivary glands, and related disorders;
stimulate basic and clinical research relating to saliva, salivary glands, and their disorders;
develop and promote new technologies to investigate and treat salivary gland diseases;
encourage education, development of high quality training programs, and exchange visits between members;
promote international collaborative studies, prospective databases, and their financing through research grants;
promote collaboration within an “International Salivary Gland Society”
support and cooperate with scientific and educational organizations in related fields, such as the European Confederation of ORL-HNS (CEORL), American Academy of ORL-HNS (AAORLHNS), American Head and Neck Society (AHNS), International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (IFOS), International Federation of Head and Neck Oncological Societies (IFHNOS), European Head and Neck Society (EHNS), International Head and Neck Scientific Group (IHNSG)
The first President, Secretary General and Treasurer (2007-2012) were, respectively Dr. Patrick Bradley (ENT-HNS Nottingham, United Kingdom), Dr. Francis Marchal (ENT-HNS Geneva, Switzerland) and Dr. Pavel Dulguerov (ENT-HNS Geneva, Switzerland). The second President was Dr. Cyrille Chossegros (OMFS, Marseille, France), and the Secretary and Treasurer were asked to continue their task (2012-2017). Since 2017, Dr. Francis Marchal was elected the third President, Dr. Vincent Vander Poorten the Secretary General, and Dr. Davide Lombardi the Treasurer. Dr. Eugene Myers (Pittsburgh, USA) was granted the President’s Medal of Honour in Barcelona, 2017, in recognition of unremitting support of the Society from its early beginning.
Within ESGS, also iSIAL (International Society for Sialendoscopy) was created as a subsection, gathering all interested colleagues in the field of sialendoscopy. ESGS/MSGS members can simply ask the secretariat to be included in the iSIAL mailing list / database to receive information and latest news on all sialendoscopy-related events.
During the last congress (Fourth International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases, Barcelona, Spain) it was decided during the General Assembly to broaden the scope of the Society, in an effort to gather more interested people, to welcome existing Salivary Gland Societies such as the Japanese and Chinese Salivary Gland Societies, and to underline the Multidisciplinary and International aspirations of the Society, the European Salivary Gland Society was re-baptized into a “Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society” (MSGS).
Congresses of the Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society – MSGS
The First International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases was held in 2002 in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting was a large success, with more than 300 attendees, 7 plenary sessions, 4 special lectures, 2 round tables, 16 free paper sessions with 102 oral communications, and 46 posters. Given the concept to involve any medical, surgical or basic science specialty that deals with saliva or salivary gland problems, sessions on physiopathology of saliva, immunology, xerostomia, parotid tumors and cancers, as well as on sialolithiasis and sialendoscopy were included. The meeting continued with the First Sialendoscopy Course organized by Dr. Francis Marchal.
From the outset it had been the intention to organize an international Congress every 5 years, so the Second International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases was organized by Dr. Jonas Johnson and Dr. Eugene Myers in Pittsburgh in 2007, and also was a very successful, well attended meeting. The Third International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases was again organized in Geneva in 2012 by Dr. Dulguerov and Dr. Marchal. The Fourth International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases meeting in 2017 was organized by Dr. Marchal, Dr. Lombardi and Dr. Vander Poorten as a smaller but truly multidisciplinary 2 days program within the framework of the European Confederation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (CEORL) meeting in Barcelona.
During this congress, it was decided during the General Assembly to broaden the scope and to reduce the time interval, in an effort to gather more interested people, to welcome existing Salivary Gland Societies such as the Japanese and Chinese Salivary Gland Societies, and to underline the Multidisciplinary and International aspirations of the Society, the European Salivary Gland Society was re-baptized into a “Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society” (MSGS).
There it was also decided that “The Fifth International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases”, and thus the “First MSGS International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases” will be held in Philadelphia, USA, October 24-25, 2019.
