Dr Nilofer Farjo Successfully Chairs ISHRS Annual Congress

14th November 2015

September saw the conclusion of the 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) in Chicago. This is the biggest annual hair transplant congress in the world organised by a society of more than 1200 members from around 60 different countries.

From our point of view, the most unique thing about this congress was that our co-founder, Dr Nilofer Farjo, was the overall Program Chair for entire event. The first time this task was honoured upon anyone from the UK, and only the 2nd European. The task started a year ago to organise the educational program over 4 and half days deciding on the structure of the congress and going through hundreds of proposed lectures, posters, speakers and authors.

The overall verdict was extremely positive, and most attendees felt the congress was probably the best one since 19 Apart from the above overall responsibility,

Dr Nilofer also gave a lecture on the subject of ‘Complications & How To Avoid them in Hair Transplant Surgery’,
and was an expert panellist in the Advances In Hair Biology Guest Speaker Lecture session given by Dr Valerie Horsley.

Dr Farjo Gives Opening address      Coordinating the Exec Director     Lecturing on Complications       with Drs Keene, Ziering & Kulahci

Dr Bessam Farjo gave 4 presentations at the congress.

• The first was an interactive video discussion with the audience on the subject of managing the young patient, one with Norwood 6 stage loss and the other with Norwood stage 3 loss.
• The 2nd talk described recent research we conducted with Dr Botchkareva’s team at University of Bradford, proving that hair in the so-called permanent area at the back of the head goes through genetic changes as one ages, compared to a younger person’s hair. This implies that although transplant results should be long term, it may not be truthful to claim they are ‘permanent’
• The 3rd presentation was a poster on another research project this time with Prof Ralf Paus’ team at University of Manchester. The subject was the idea that ‘clock genes’ in the local hair environment regulate the life cycle of the hair and therefore, providing a potential target for future therapies to control hair growth.
• The 4th task was co-chairing an expert table on the subject of consistent clinical photography and videography
• Finally, he was on a panel of 5 overall experts in the final session of the congress, where the audience had the chance to ask and engage in any subject of their choosing

Other responsibilities Dr Bessam attended to included, attending the Board of Governors meeting as a nominated Past President, and also attending the Global Council of National & Regional Societies in his capacity as Chair of the International Relations Subcommittee.

Talking about Young patients          Presenting ‘Ageing’ Hair                  with Drs Avram & Umar              At expert table

Dr Greg Williams had his busiest hair congress to date.

• He participated in the Global Council of National & Regional Societies meeting in his capacity of President of the British Association of Hair Restoration Surgery
• He co-chaired an expert table on the subject of managing donor scars following strip FUT hair transplant surgery
• He was on a panel of experts discussing legal and regulatory issues in hair restoration surgery around the world as well as the UK
• Finally, Dr Williams lectured in a session dedicated to complications in hair surgery and discussing their management and avoidance

Dr Williams on the legal and regulations panel

Sara Roberts RN, our surgery manager, was assistant chair for the Surgical Assistants Meeting, and the chair of the Surgical Assistants hands on training workshop. She also lectured to the assistants (technicians) on the subject of staff retention and team building. She also co-chaired an expert surgical assistants table

Heather Stretch, one of our senior technicians, also attended the congress as part of Team Farjo. She took a very active part in the assistants meeting serving on a discussion panel as well directly providing hands on training at the assistants’ workshop.

Many More Photos on our Farjo Hair Institute Facebook page Chicago album. Click Here!