Surgical Students Society of Melbourne SSSM

SSSM

The Surgical Students’ Society of Melbourne (SSSM) was founded in 2009 by medical students eager to share their passion for surgery. Over a decade on, SSSM has grown into the peak surgical interest group at the University of Melbourne, representing over 1,400 students across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria. Our society continues to work tirelessly to provide our students with high-quality surgical education, as well as a platform to enable communication between students, surgeons and other experts in the field.

The missions of our society broadly relates to three domains:
Education – we aim to maximise access to quality surgical education for all Melbourne Medical School students, including a unique Rotating Lecture Series, practical workshops, mentoring programs and a podcast series.
Research – the society aims to promote research amongst medical students in order to foster a passion for surgical academia from the very start of their medical journey.
Advocacy – the society strives to represent and advocate for all of our students, to ensure that their surgical interests, skills and education are wholly fulfilled.

SSSM continually strives to achieve these missions in order to fulfil our vision of inspiring the next generation of world-class surgeons.

Looking back over the years, I am humbled by the achievements and milestones that were attained by our SSSM predecessors. Some of the highlights for this year will include:

  • The Surgical Careers Night, which brings together surgeons from all different surgical specialties to inspire, inform and guide our students into their future surgical specialties.
  • Our Diversity in Surgery initiative, which seeks to promote diversity across various domains, including gender, ethnicity, orientation, nationality and career, thereby providing a platform for female students, trainees and seniors at all stages of surgical training to come together and empower one another.
  • An annual surgical poster competition, with this year's theme focusing on sustainability in the world of surgery, inviting students to explore solutions to tackle the environmental challenges of surgical practice.
  • Surgical workshops at all seven clinical sites around Melbourne and regional/rural Victoria including: suturing, plastering, laparoscopy, chest drain insertion and trauma management.
  • Collaborations with specialty interest groups within the medical student cohort, facilitating more elaborate workshops and lectures dedicated towards specific surgical specialties.
  • Our podcast series, The Time Out, where we interview surgeons along various stages in their careers to get an insight into their day-to-day lives and journey towards surgery.
  • A mentoring program, which pairs surgically-inclined students with surgeons, to help further inspire their passion for surgery.
  • The SSSM Charity Calendar, which sells out every year at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, with all proceeds going towards enabling surgeons to provide surgical aid and education overseas
  • SSSM’s involvement in national and international conferences such as MD Student Conference, Global Health Conference and the International Surgical Students Conference, holding surgical workshops and educational events.
  • The VIC State Hub event, a collaboration with Monash and Deakin Surgical Students' Societies as well as RACS, to bring students across Victoria an action packed night of surgical workshops, skills challenges and much more!

It is my great pleasure to introduce the 2022 SSSM Executive Committee who work behind the scenes to make this all possible!

President/St Vincent's Site Chair - Albert Shen
Vice President Internal/Western Site Chair - Cindy Lin
Vice President External/Epworth Site Chair - Cassie Huang
Secretary/Austin Site Chair - Kit Chong
Education Officer/Northern Site Chair - Amy Surkitt
Treasurer/Royal Melbourne Hospital Site Chair - Doris Huang
Department of Surgery Liaison Office/Rural Site Chair - Karim Sadik
Diversity Officer - Amalia Marino
Publications & Promotions Officer - Tony Jia and Celine Pang
MD1 Representatives - Grace Audrey Wang and Jack Bounds

…And many more sub-committee members who are the back-bone of our society!

None of this would be possible without the support of our amazing sponsors such as the Department of Surgery at The University of Melbourne, MIPS, AMBOSS and Dr. Woof Apparel. To the Department of Surgery, we would like to thank you for your ongoing support over the past few years. Your guidance has been a vital part of SSSM’s ever-growing success and has helped us continue nurturing surgical interest at the Melbourne Medical School.

Albert Shen
President, Surgical Students’ Society of Melbourne

Find us on Facebook at SSSMelbourne or on our website at www.sssmelbourne.com