Listen locally
National Delegates and Regional Representatives provide a route for local priorities and educational needs to reach the international Society.
Global Surgery & Guidelines
Knowledge that works in different settings.
ISS/SIC connects local surgical needs with international expertise, education and scientific exchange. National Delegates, Integrated Societies and partner organisations help bring country-level perspectives into a wider global network.
Global surgery
Local needs.
Shared expertise.
Shared expertise.
01National Delegates
02Integrated Societies
03Education partners
04Science & guidance
Our approach
Start with the needs of surgical communities.
ISS/SIC's governance framework gives National Delegates an important coordinating role between countries and Council, while the Global Surgery and Education structure is designed to collaborate with Integrated Societies and external organisations on advocacy and postgraduate surgical education.
Connect expertise
Integrated Societies contribute specialist knowledge and can collaborate across disciplines on global surgical advocacy and education.
Build partnerships
The Society's framework explicitly supports interaction with Colleges, Universities, NGOs and other stakeholders involved in surgical education.
From local needs to international action
A connected route through ISS/SIC.
The purpose is not to impose one solution everywhere. The network can bring local context, specialist expertise and international collaboration together before education, publications or future guidance are developed.
01Country & regional needsMembers, surgical communities and National Delegates
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02ISS/SIC networkCouncil, Integrated Societies and education partners
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03Shared knowledgeEducation, scientific exchange, publications and guidance
Current direction - 2026-2028
Guidance that can reflect available resources.
In September 2026 the ISS/SIC Council discussed strengthening WJS content through Clinical Reviews and Global Guidelines that take differences between high-, middle- and low-resource settings into account. A Project Group on Guidelines was discussed. These are development priorities, not presented here as already published ISS/SIC guidelines.
Discussed by Council
Clinical Reviews
Potential review content aimed particularly at trainees, connecting practical education with the World Journal of Surgery.
Development direction
Global Guidelines
A proposed direction for guidance that acknowledges differences in resources and clinical environments rather than assuming a single setting.
Under discussion
Project Group
The establishment of a dedicated Project Group on Guidelines was discussed as part of the current WJS and content strategy.
Collaboration
Global surgery is a network activity.
The governing framework calls for collaboration rather than a stand-alone programme. ISS/SIC can connect its Council and National Delegates with specialist societies and external education partners.
Resources
Current and developing knowledge in one place.
As the new website is completed, published resources and guidance can be migrated into this section and linked to their authoritative source. Until that migration is complete, the existing ISS/SIC resource archive remains available.