Dear ISMR Member:

With our newly formed non-profit organization, we now have strength, stability, and the initial membership support to help benefit our maxillofacial patients’ worldwide. I am very excited about the future of the ISMR. I wish to congratulate our first 100 members and welcome their contributions to help lead us into the next century. Our success at the Third International Congress in Torino, Italy can be attributed to over 241 participants demonstrating quality presentations. Many thanks to our gracious sponsors and a meeting of exemplary organization by Giulio Preti and his staff at the University of Turin, Department of Prosthetics.

We have developed an ISMR web site on the Internet. Opportunities exist to communicate with each other, inquire about technical questions and challenges, or exchange unique experiences in our daily work with maxillofacial prosthetic patients. You are encourage to visit the ISMR at:

http://www.res-inc.com/ismr.htm

I am excited about our international roster. Many patients and families are concerned about services close to their home country. Our international colleagues gives us impetus and confidence in referring someone for a definitive obturator prosthesis or osseointegrated implants post surgery, or dental care for the irradiated head and neck patient. We look forward to additional 100 members by the end of 1999. Please encourage your colleagues to submit the membership application on page 4.

I have recently been contacted by members of Interplast Inc., an international non-profit plastic surgery group that volunteers to provide surgical and medical services to Third World and developing countries; mainly oral and facial reconstruction. It is composed of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, pediatricians, and allied health care workers from over 140 countries. I have accompanied them on some of their 7-10 day trips since 1988, providing maxillofacial services and education in outreach programs to Vietnam, El Salvador, and Mongolia. The rewards are fantastic. Assembled "teams" have worked with the camaraderie needed to provide maxillofacial prosthetic services to over 150 patients. I encourage all to read the following article on our proposed Outreach Programs, and consider the opportunity to contribute their skills for the worldly worthwhile cause.

Our Fourth ISMR Congress was held in November 2000. The International Society of Maxillofacial Rehabilitation and the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics elected to jointly combine their meetings, in the Hawaiian Islands.  Topics for this symposium included: prosthetic technique as well as biological and theoretical clinical and laboratory application, cleft palate prostheses, facial materials and state of the art osseoimplants in reconstructed mandibles and maxilla. Panel discussions were provided to promote controversies of designs and techniques, indication and application of our complicated and sophisticated prosthetics. Sharing and dissemination of our knowledge and challenging all to improve quality of life for our patients is our goal. Your contributions were appreciated.

Our next meeting will be held jointly with the Japanese Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics in Okinawa, Japan (October 3-5, 2002).  We look forward to seeing everyone at this exciting symposium.

I extend best wishes and a healthy happy New Year to all colleagues, and look forward to the ISMR activities in the next few years. Our potential is unlimited. If visiting New York City, I invite you to visit me at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for a social and/or professional visit.

Your ISMR President,

Ian Zlotolow
New York, New York

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