From 15th to 17th of September 2004 the first International Congress of the European Academy of Surgical Sciences took pace in Gdańsk. Almost 500 surgeons of various specializations from Poland and from abroad participated in it. The Polish-American symposium of plastic and aesthetic surgery was a part of the congress. Professor Maria Siemionow, the director of a research team from Cleveland Clinic Foundation specializing in plastic surgery, was among invited guests. The results of her research on the latest achievements in the field of transplantology delivered by her aroused huge interest. It should be remembered that professor Siemionow is a graduate of the Poznań School of Medicine and it was Poznań where she specialized in orthopaedics. Today she is an authority in transplantology famous world wide. She takes advantage of her position to help young doctors from Poland to obtain suitable knowledge in the United States of America.
Jerzy Kolasiński, M.D., also participated in the Gdańsk congress. Numerous discussions with professor Siemionow were devoted to the possibility of transplanting hair from donors. The discussion resulted in the cooperation between Cleveland Clinic Foundation research team and our clinic, all supervised by professor Siemionow.