• Knowledge Exchange
• Expressions Summer 2022

Face Ahead in Spain

Dr Mike Leung (right), sole surgeon from Asia-Pacific among the four organizing committee members of Face Ahead 2022

OMFS Staff Represented Asia-Pacific to Organise International Conference

An in-person international conference in craniomaxillofacial surgery, Face Ahead 2022, was successfully held on 5 -7 May 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. Dr Mike Leung, Clinical Associate Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) of HKU Faculty of Dentistry, was the only surgeon from Asia-Pacific among the four organising committee members of Face Ahead 2022.

The conference had a brand-new format that comprised of multiple interactive case-based sections, panel discussions, and several keynote lectures. The new style conference was tailor-made for the younger generation of surgeons in oral and maxillofacial surgery, otorhinolaryngology, and plastic and reconstructive surgery, who wished to have in- depth interactions with many world-renowned “rock-star” surgeons in the field.

The conference was attended by over 300 surgeons of various specialties from six continents. Dr Daniel Borsuk, Chief, Division Plastic Surgery at CHU Sainte Justine, Université de Montreal, the plastic surgeon who led the team for the first face transplant in Canada, and Mr Satyesh Parmar, Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial / Head and Neck Surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK, the OMFS surgeon who restored the face of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, were among the all-star lineup of the Conference.

Face-to-face meetings allow deeper learning in educational events and conferences, as well as building connections and potential international collaborations. It was a great honor to represent Asia-Pacific to organise an international conference of this caliber.

An interview with Waleed Khan, a survivor of a school massacre in Pakistan in 2014, was arranged to understand severe facial gunshot injury from a patient’s perspective. Professor Jill Helms, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University, USA, a world-leading researcher in bone regeneration, gave a keynote lecture on the future technologies and cell biology of the development of bone substitutes. The conference was concluded with great success.

Dr Leung expressed, “After 4 years of preparation and being postponed twice because of the pandemic, the conference finally came to life. Face-to-face meetings allow deeper learning in educational events and conferences, as well as building connections and potential international collaborations. It was a great honor to represent Asia-Pacific to organise an international conference of this caliber.”