The Department of Surgery is a large surgical department that is completely new; it is simplistic, as well as improper, to believe that it is only the result of the sum of the Valdoni Department and the Department of Surgical Sciences.

The objectives of a university Department are essentially research, teaching and planning of future structures, always keeping in mind the inseparability, for the professor of a Department of Surgery, of the three roles of teaching, research and assistance, without the which the completeness of their function is lacking. These are institutional objectives that must be pursued with commitment and planning.

With these premises, the new Department has every chance of achieving important goals also on a scientific and didactic level.

Scientific research cannot fail to make use of a new thrust and impetus, deriving from the collaboration and integration between colleagues with common skills, paying attention to avoiding unnecessary duplication or overlapping on research purposes.

As with the clinical guidelines, collaboration between colleagues will also influence the scientific guidelines of the Department by implementing them; our wide range of interests (endocrine-metabolic and bariatric surgery, surgery of digestive system neoplasms also under the minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic aspect, treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis, surgery of the digestive system, coloproctology and pelvic floor surgery, breast surgery, vascular surgery, hepato-bilio-pancreatic surgery, plastic surgery with particular and uncommon regard to microsurgery and orthoplasty, emergency surgery and the treatment of multiple trauma patients, outpatient surgery and day surgery, digestive endoscopy, molecular oncology) is a source of pride and is the backbone of the new Department of Surgery: its mission is to achieve even more important results, with the awareness that only the commitment to everyone, teachers, technical, administrative and social-health personnel, will be able to guarantee those ambitious goals, to which aspire let's plow.

It is necessary to remember the acquisition, in the last year, of new cutting-edge equipment concerning endoscopic diagnostics and therapy; values that will make it possible to raise the scientific scope of research in this area. Technological renewal will have to be a further objective to increase scientific-clinical aspects of other departmental sectors.

The educational and training offer, after the long and difficult period of the pandemic, has certainly changed; new forms of teaching have been tested which will have to integrate the traditional ones so that the didactic offer can be increasingly broad and adequate to the request of students, postgraduates and doctoral students. The Department of Surgery includes a Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery, numerous Degree Courses in the Health Professions, the School of Specialization in General Surgery, the PhD in Advanced Technologies in Surgery, some Masters and Higher Education courses.

The recent hiring plan implemented by Sapienza has allowed the introduction of new staff in the technical-administrative sector into the Department, a structure that effectively allows the implementation of all the activities of a University Department. Thanks to this, the goal of reopening the glorious library located in the IV Surgical Clinic was achieved, thus making a space so rich in the tradition of surgical culture accessible to students.

The common objectives of University Governance and Corporate Governance make us aware that right now we have to work in harmony with them, sharing guidelines and actions aimed at improving the results and external consideration of our University and our Hospital.

The need for internalization, firmly requested by our Rector, will be another of the goals to be pursued by establishing relationships with other European Universities, to develop increasingly shared projects, encouraging the growth of new generations of Researchers and the comparison between the greatest Teachers of the our Department.

Prof. Enrico Fiori