Dear Colleagues,

 

The last few years have seen a dramatic change in the activities as well as the impact that the SGA has achieved at multiple levels.

 

On the scientific side, the last annual meeting in Jeddah was a great success and has gained the attention as well as admiration at both a national and international level especially from our guests from our neighboring gulf states. The SGA has also either facilitated or indorsed a number of activities all throughout the Kingdome.

 

Furthermore, our flagship, the Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology (SJG) has been receiving numerous high quality manuscripts and we are expecting our first impact factor very soon.

 

On a community level the SGA has made a great effort that reached out to the community and embraced their concerns as well as their needs, this issue of the newsletter exhibits this in a clear manner.

 

All of this is by the Grace of Allah and then due to the hard work and exceptional dedication from our colleagues in the past SGA board. All our thanks and sincere appreciation goes out to the past President Dr. Abdulrahman Aljebreen, or Past Vice President Dr. Abdullah Alghamdi, as well as our past Board members Dr. Hanan Alghamdi, Dr. Ayman Abdo and Dr. Faisal Sanai. We would like also to thank both the editors as well as the associated editors of the SJG. Our appreciation is mostly to our members of the society that made all these accomplishments happen and without their ideas, communication and their participation none of this would have happened.

 

We have assembled a team for the upcoming SGA board cycle and we have thankfully retained experienced physicians form the prior board and I believe they are an invaluable asset to the SGA as well some enthusiastic new members. Our mission will be to sustain what our predecessors have achieved and expand on it.

 

We aim to build long term partnerships with the industry for the greater benefit of our association as well as trying to outreach to neighboring societies in the gulf region and internationally. The aim of this would be to enrich our educational resources as well as make visible internationally what we have provided and the great potential and impact our members can make in their professional fields as well as to our communities.

 

Our board members, as well as myself, believe that the upcoming few years will be exciting with new partnerships, the formation of interest groups in IBD as well as endoscopy and Celiac disease, the establishment of a steering scientific subcommittee for the SGA and much more. We urge all members to participate with us and share their achievements with us, it is only fair, as it is our passion and mission.

 

Majid Almadi