Page 39 - IFSO-History-Book-Digital-File

The birth of IFSO-EC was not as smooth as it may have appeared. In the beginning, there were
substantial doubts about such a move, particularly among IFSO Executive Board members. They
were uncertain whether such a move might weaken IFSO broadly, which then was only gradually
gaining strength. At that point, former ASBS President and IFSO Executive Board member, Professor
Henry Buchwald (US) was able to bring about a diplomatic and pragmatic accord that bridged
different opinions and facilitated the further growth and strength of the primary IFSO organization
and what became its evolving subgroups, organized around the regulations and cultural realities of
diverse global geographic regions. Subsequently, Henry Buchwald was elected IFSO President
during this turbulent period of IFSO’s existence (2003 and 2004). As a result of Professor Buchwald’s
negotiations and peacemaking capabilities, IFSO-EC was finally established without a major breach
within the IFSO Executive Board.
Interestingly, the concept of IFSO-EC was strongly supported by our European non-surgical
colleagues who had been gathered exclusively until then around the European Association for Study
of Obesity (EASO), led then by EASO President Vojtech Hainer (Czech Republic). Thus, it was not by
chance that the inaugural IFSO-EC Symposium, wherein the IFSO-EC was unofficially organized in
2004, was held as a joint Congress with EASO’s European Congress of Obesity (ECO) in Prague,
Czech Republic. From 2004 to 2017, IFSO-EC Congresses were conducted every other year when
the global IFSO Congresses were held outside of Europe. Since 2017, IFSO-EC Congresses have
taken place in Europe annually.

IFSO-EC and/or EASO’s ECO Congresses held in Europe since 2004:
• 2004: Joint EASO European Congress of Obesity (ECO) with 1st IFSO-EC Congress Prague,
Czech Republic
• 2006: 2nd IFSO-EC Congress/European Combined Meeting of Bariatric and Plastic Surgery
Lyon, France
• 2008: 3rd IFSO-EC Congress Capri, Italy
• 2010: 4th IFSO-EC Congress Lausanne, Switzerland
• 2011: European Obesity Medico-Surgical Workshop by EASO and IFSO-EC Munich, Germany
• 2012: 5th IFSO-EC Congress Barcelona, Spain
• 2013: European Obesity Medico-Surgical Workshop organized as a satellite event of EASO
ECO and IFSO-EC Liverpool, United Kingdom
• 2014: 6th IFSO-EC Congress Brussels, Belgium
• 2016: 7th IFSO-EC Congress and EASO ECO Gothenburg, Sweden -European Obesity Summit
(EOS)/joint event
• 2017: 1st IFSO-EC Symposium Naples, Italy
• 2018: 8th IFSO-EC Congress Athens, Greece
• 2019: 2nd IFSO-EC Symposium Lyon, France
• 2020: Virtual IFSO-EC Conference (due to COVID-19)
• 2021: 9th IFSO-EC Congress Prague, Czech Republic
• 2022: 10th IFSO-EC Congress and EASO ECO Maastricht, Netherlands Zoom Forward/joint
event
• 2023: 11th IFSO-EC Congress Zurich, Switzerland
• 2024: 12th IFSO-EC Congress Vienna, Austria
• 2025: 13th IFSO-EC Congress Venice, Italy
• 2026: 14th IFSO-EC Congress Malaga, Spain

A primary IFSO-EC goal was to establish cooperation with other multidisciplinary specialties in the
field of obesity management. In 2008, and updated in 2014, Interdisciplinary European Guidelines
on Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery were jointly created and published by the Bariatric Scientific
Collaborative Group (BSCG) composed of members of the Executive Boards of IFSO-EC and EASO.
In 2025, guidelines based on a modified Delphi consensus statement from EASO, IFSO-EC, and
ECPO provided recommendations from healthcare professionals and people living with obesity on

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