We are excited to introduce you to our newest
National Secretaries & Assistant National Secretaries
for the 2024-2026 term!

We are delighted to introduce Dr. Volker Wedler, our new Assistant National Secretary from Switzerland. He is looking forward to his new role and is actively involved in humanitarian efforts.

I have been working in plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery for 30 years. Compared with many other people in the world and with the next generation, I am conscious that the opportunity to study medicine and specialize in our field has been a great privilege. The increasingly introverted practice in our field, where the economic aspect is increasingly being put into the foreground, should give way to further scientific developments with seriously documented standards for the benefit of all. I want to help pass on knowledge, learn from others, and put safety for patients back at the forefront. A Society like ISAPS has the potential to network globally to enable a daily exchange of innovations, cries for help, literature, and much more despite current wars and geopolitical interests. I want to be involved in it.

You are involved in worldwide humanitarian efforts; how does this impact your everyday practice? Why is humanitarian involvement so significant to our specialty?

My work in crisis areas, which began in 1993 during the genocide in Rwanda, has since expanded to Mali, Burkina Faso, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Cameroon, and Uganda. This global reach underscores the breadth and depth of our influence in these areas. As President of Interplast Switzerland, an association I founded and have been leading for many years, I go on missions three to four times yearly for 14 days.

Although many aesthetic techniques are essential for reconstruction and vice versa, reconstruction cannot be done without aesthetics; both the people in my country and those in crisis areas benefit from this. A woman in a crisis zone or developing countries diagnosed with breast cancer has the same distress as a woman in Europe. However, the prerequisites for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care are unevenly distributed. For this reason, complete teams equipped with our standards in hygiene, materials, surgical techniques, and ethical approaches travel to the countries mentioned above to help and give further training to local colleagues.