Education, Training and Research committee reports

July  2018

The Great Britain & Ireland Hepatobiliary Association (GBIHPBA) enjoyed an excellent international conference in Leamington Spa in March. This conference was unique in that we had a delegation from China under the leadership of Prof Fan from Shanghai. Both local delegates and our international friends enjoyed a ‘combined’ learning environment and this pathed the way for further collaborative projects.

We were also fortunate to have Prof Maddern from Adelaide present a keynote lecture on What we do not know about Hepatobiliary Surgery. He also entertained us with the details of the new hospital build in Adelaide which is now regarded as the most expensive hospital in the world. This was a fascinating insight into planning and executing a new hospital using private finance initiatives. Another highlight was the Precision Pancreas talk from Prof Biankin from Glasgow. The conference concluded with an international debate, which looked at issues and opportunities in surgical training in China, Australia and the UK. I would personally like to thank Ashley Dennison (President, GBIHPBA) and Professors Fan and Zhou from Shanghai for ensuring an excellent meeting.

Looking forward, I am delighted to announce some key features of the forthcoming annual AUGIS Conference, which will be held in Edinburgh from 19 – 21 September. It is particularly important to note that on the Wednesday morning there will be a training day for all trainees in upper GI, HPB and bariatric surgical training. The main conference starts this year on Wednesday afternoon rather than Thursday morning and it will run until Friday lunchtime. A tremendous amount of effort has gone into ensuring a superb programme for this meeting. I am grateful to our local organisers Mr Graeme Cooper and Mr Peter Lamb and our president, Richard Hardwick, for their assistance in helping deliver an excellent programme.

I am delighted to welcome Mr Don Low from Seattle as well as Prof Takeshi-Sano from Tokyo to the conference this year. Both these world leaders have rearranged their diaries to allow a visit to the AUGIS Conference and for that I am extremely grateful. The conference in September precedes a major Edinburgh OG and HPB Fellow reunion on the Saturday, 22 September 2018. As a result, we have a host of international speakers, who are arriving not just for the reunion, but also to attend the AUGIS conference. I am delighted to confirm that the following faculty will be speaking prior to attending the Fellows reunion – Mr Brendan Visser from Stanford University, Prof John Windsor from Auckland, Prof. Rob Padbury from Adelaide, Prof. Kees Dejong from Maastricht University and Mr Saxon Connor from Christchurch.

The conference dinner will be held in the fabulous National Museum of Scotland on the Thursday evening. I can assure everyone that this will be a night to remember so please book early!

In my last report I mentioned the discussions in relation to Research Leads associated with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the various charities.

An advertisement went out to all members and we aim to shortlist and interview for a pancreatic cancer research lead (joint initiative between AUGIS, Pancreatic Cancer UK (PCUK) and Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF)). We will be also interviewing for a research lead for oesophago-gastric cancer, co-funded with Heartburn Cancer UK.

We are continuing to discuss the possibility of a liver research lead with various charities, as well as the Royal College of Surgeons.

I do believe that such joint collaboration in terms of the research profile of AUGIS linked to various charities is a very positive one and in association with The Royal College of Surgeons will bear fruit in the not too distant future.

You may have noticed requests over the past year to complete surveys or sign up for collaborative studies. The majority of such activities have been driven by our trainees. I would ask if you would continue to support this activity which is excellent for all concerned. Projects such as the Upper GI DELPHI process, HPB DELPHI Process and RIOCHET to name but a few.

I look forward to welcoming everyone in Edinburgh for what will be a fantastic celebration of upper GI, hepatobiliary & bariatric surgery in UK and Ireland.

Mr Mark Taylor
Education and Training & Research Lead
AUGIS