History
History of the Society for Medical Innovations and Technology (SMIT)
The Society for Medical Innovations and Technology is an international society, formed in 1989 under the name "Society for Minimally Invasive Therapy" by an innovative group of medical practitioners led by John Wickham.

The founding members were leaders in their fields and were dedicated to the multidiciplinary advancement of minimally invasive therapy in an attempt to reduce patient trauma arising from surgical operations or radiological interventions. The current membership base includes representatives from most medical specialities, instrument manufacturing, biomedical engineering and research.

As to reflect this broader membership as well to attract further members not necessarily only within minimally invasive therapy, the name of the Society was formally changed to "Society for Medical Innovation and Technology" during the 12th Conress in the year 2000.

The Society has met annually at successful gatherings since 1989. Meetings have taken place in:

Location
Country
Year
Chairman / president
1. London UK 1989 John Wickham, John Fitzpatrick (Foundation of the Society)
2. Vienna Austria 1990 Michael Marberger
3. Boston USA 1991 Bruce McLucas
4. Dublin Ireland 1992 John Fiztpatrick, Noel Williams
5. Orlando USA 1993 Peter Mueller
  1. Wickham-lecture: R. Satava, The visionary's approach to surgery in the 21st century
6. Berlin Germany 1994 Gerhard Buess
  2. Wickham-lecture: T. Leber, "The Louvre" 3D video presentation
7. Portland USA 1995 Josef Rösch
  3. Wickham-lecture: G. Buess, Development of future systems for endoscopic surgery
8. Milan (Ancona) Italy 1996 Pisani/Wickham
  4. Wickham-lecture: J. Rizzo, Development of electronic eye for blindness
9. Kyoto Japan 1997 Yoshida/Wickham
  5. Wickham-lecture: S. Tachi, Tele-existence and Virtual Reality
10. London UK 1998 Wickham/Buess
  6. Wickham-lecture: A. Adam, Interventional Radiology in patients with cancer
11. Boston USA 1999 Stephen Dawson
  7. Wickham-lecture: J. Burke, Innovation serendipity and healing
12. Gelsenkrichen Germany 2000 Andreas Melzer/Rainer Seibel
  8. Wickham-lecture: D. Birkett, Impact of innovative medical technologies on MIT
R. Satava, The Biointelligence Age: Medicine after the Information Age
13. Berlin Germany 2001 Marc O. Schurr / Harald Fischer
  9. Wickham-lecture: E. Owen, Microsurgery and beyond - miniaturisation in progress
14. Oslo Norway 2002 Erik Fosse / Toril Nagelhues-Hernes
  10. Wickham-lecture: R. Wolf, Cardiac Surgery in the past present and future
15. Amsterdam Netherlands 2003 Willem Bemelman / Kees Grimbergen
  11. Wickham-lecture: N. Bom (Engineer), Early, present and future applications of Echocardiography

Future Meetings:

1. Rome Italy 2004 Marco M.Lirici/Cristiano Hüscher
2. Naples Italy 2005 Nicola Di Lorenzo, Antonio Tornabé
3. Monterey USA 2006 Rick Satava
4. Kyoto Japan 2007 Eiji Kanehira

PRESIDENT 2005
NICOLA DI LORENZO, MD
CO-PRESIDENT
ANTONIO TORNAMBÈ, MD