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T.S.: After EAU24 it was announced that the EAU Sections of Urolithiasis and Uro-Technology (EULIS and ESUT) would be merging to form a new Section of Endourology. Moreover, you were appointed Chair of this new Section. Could you tell us a few words about the merging of the two sections?
Professor Olivier Traxer: Yeah, it's, again a very important point and also a very important part of my life. I was very fortunate, and it's a big, big honor for me to be appointed as the new Chair of this Section. Of course, it's also a responsibility. I think that in the past, the EULIS and the ESUT Sections did a fantastic job. There's no discussion on that, but I think that the general feeling was that the European Endourology and Technology was maybe not so visible. Although all the people were there, all the talents in Europe with all the knowledge, it was very important to create a unique Section to promote and to make much more visible what the European people are doing in the Endo and Technology. So, I think it's a new time for European Endourology and Technology. And the mission is to make our work much more visible and also to try to create more connections for the young people. This is one of the main projects. With this new Section, we will try to create grants to support young people, by having a one-year fellowship program somewhere in Europe and be financially supported. Because, you know, I realize that one of the problems of my fellows is that when they're coming to me to do the one-year fellowship, they have no money. They are not financially supported and they need to find the money for that. And I think this is a limiting factor for some people. So, for me, it was very important with this new Section, to create new grants and to support young people, allowing them to have a fellowship like I did many years ago. Because again, without my fellowship, I would not be here today with you talking about that.
F.N.: Could you provide us with some insight into what's next for the EAU Endourology Section?
Professor Olivier Traxer: So, of course, we will proceed with the regular activities that are developed by, again, EULIS and ESUT. We will participate at the same level in all these activities. But we will also have new projects. One new project will be the fellowship program, that we talked about earlier, which will be financially supported by EAU. And we will try to establish
five grants for candidates from Europe in 2025. But my hope is, that in 2026 we will have probably eight to ten grants, not only for European people. Because I strongly believe that EAU and this novel EAU Endourology Section must be much (and we must be) more open with the rest of the world. It's not only the Europe. We need also to be more in contact with Asian colleagues and people from Africa and South America. We are already connected to our North American colleagues. But I think we need to have more contacts, actually, with the rest of the world. So, it's also something we will try to develop more: to be more present and more visible on an international level. And to achieve that, we will also, and it will be a big project, to redesign an annual meeting in Endourology. So, this annual meeting will take place in November. It will replace the UROtech and the EULIS meeting that you probably know. So, now we will have a big annual meeting in the second part of the year.
F.N.: You are considered an expert in flexible ureteroscopy. When you began your journey in Endourology could you predict the development of the flexible ureteroscopes and the different energy devices?
Professor Olivier Traxer: I will be very honest with you. I cannot explain, but I was feeling the way of what we are doing today. You know, for me, it was something very likely, something very easy, to imagine that we would go for these different steps. And I'm not surprised. I'm very happy to see what we are doing now compared to what we were doing back then. You don't know that, because you are very young, but I can just tell you, in the last 25 years for flexible ureteroscopy, we had five huge steps. The first one was what we call the introduction of new endoscopes. What does
Tεύχος 34 | Mάρτιος - Απρίλιος 2025
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