Philipp O. Szavay, MD, FACS
Past President IPEG
Vice President Swiss Society of Pediatric Surgery
Children’s Hospital Central Switzerland, Lucerne, Switzerland

Dr. Szavay is currently Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Head and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Central Switzerland in Lucerne, Switzerland.

He went to medical school at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, followed by residency and fellowship in pediatric surgery at Hannover Medical School, Germany. In 2001 he was granted with a travel grant by the German Society of Pediatric Surgery and was able to visit pediatric surgical departments in Hershey, PA, USA and at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA. He became board certified in 2002, an assistant professor in 2010 and professor of Pediatric Surgery in 2013 at the University of Tuebingen.

Dr. Szavay is particularly interested in minimally invasive pediatric surgery as well as in pediatric urology. He has a strong focus on surgical education, especially in the field of minimally invasive techniques and directed numerous national and international courses respectively such as for the ESPU (European Society of Pediatric Urology), EUPSA (European Pediatric Surgical Association), ESPES (European Society of Pediatric Endoscopic Surgeons) and the IRCAD.

Dr. Szavay has published more than 80 manuscripts, several book chapters and DVD’s on minimally invasive pediatric urology and on thoracoscopy respectively and presented more than 200 abstracts. He is Co-Editor of the ESPES Manual of Pediatric Minimally Invasive Surgery released in 2019.

Dr. Szavay has been a dedicated member of IPEG for 21 years, where has been the European Representative and served in the Executive Committee. He is a Past President of IPEG. He has been program chair of IPEG's annual congress in Edinburgh, UK, 2014, as well as the course director of IPEG's annual congresses in Fukuoka, Japan, 2016, Beijing, China, 2013 and San Diego, USA, 2012. In addition, he contributed significantly to IPEG's Middle East Chapter, serving as course instructor as well as providing live surgery and lectures in Cairo, Egypt. In 2017 and 2025 he participated in a US-Mission trip to Guatemala, where he introduced laparoscopic pediatric urology to the national pediatric surgical fellowship program. Dr. Szavay became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) in 2024.