Society History

We are in the process of publishing the history of SASOG in a booklet form. This booklet will provide an overview of the Society in the last few decades.

An exert from the newly complied booklet “History of SASOG”

“According to Donald S. Ractliffe, a General Practitioner whose article, ‘The Evolution of Medical Societies in Britain – Have They a Future?’ appeared in the Bristol Medico- Chirurgical Journal of January/April 1979, the birth of true medical societies developed as the natural offspring of scientific societies formed in Italy and Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Renaissance, beginning in the 15th century, was primarily a rediscovery of art and literature but it was inevitable that sooner or later freedom of thought and enquiry would upset that very canon of revealed truth which the Renaissance was so excited to have found. It was the gradual emergence of the spirit of enquiry, replacing the unquestioned acceptance of the Galen authority, that led medical men to come together to exchange ideas, to dissect for themselves the human body and to conduct with each other the early experiments; later there was also a need to safeguard professional standards and ethics. These objectives cannot be achieved by doctors in isolation but only when they communicate in groups or form societies.

Over the course of reading and researching SASOG’s journey, it has become clear that it has not only upheld the noble functions of its early predecessors but has evolved to become an indispensable resource for its members, able to respond to the ever more increasingly complex environment that is healthcare.

SASOG has provided education and advocacy, set standards for excellence in the profession, helped inform members of new research and developments in the field and assisted its members in protecting the interests of their patients by providing better care. Doctors who belong to medical societies are, in turn, part of a broader professional network of likeminded souls and therefore able to speak and be heard as one, powerful, unified voice.”