It is indeed a great pleasure to be the president of Indian association of Gynaecological Endoscopists. I take this opportunity to thank the committee members and the IAGE members and look forward to our teamwork to create guidelines to achieve the best standard of care.

The IAGE (Indian Association of Gynaecological Endoscopists) is one of the oldest endoscopy society in the world and was founded in 1978.The founder president of the association was Dr.N.D.Motashaw. A group of active members including Dr V N Purandare, Dr S N Daftary, Dr M N Parikh, Dr R D Pandit, Dr Adi Dastur, Dr SS Thakur , Dr M Y Raval, Dr Shirish Sheth, late Dr D N Pai, the late Dr C L Zaveri, the late Dr Siddarth Khandwala , the late Dr B N Purandare promoted laparoscopy in India and this became a national organisation with over 1500 gynaecologists.

The acquisition of Laparoscopic skills requires formal training, dedication, commitment and constant practice. In our endeavour to shorten the learning curve we overlook the safety in Laparoscopic surgery.

The theme of IAGE is “Safe Endoscopy” which essentially means to improve the safety of surgical care all over the country by ensuring adherence to proven standards of care in all the laparoscopy centres. Surgical care has been an essential component of health care worldwide. WHO has undertaken a number of global and regional initiatives to address surgical safety.