The Silver Scalpel is awarded to a consultant trainer for their outstanding contributions to surgical training, as voted for by trainees. Each year, the prize winner is celebrated at a ceremony and dinner at the Royal College of Surgeons.

This year's winner is Prof Paul Ridgway, a consultant upper GI, HPB and General Surgeon at Tallaght University Hospital. He is an associate professor at Trinity College Dublin and has a research interest in performance in Surgery.

This podcast was recorded during the ISTG Charter Week session on fellowship updates.

The Irish Surgical Training Group have collaborated with RCSI to create a new bursary for post-CCST trainees embarking on fellowship. Find more details here
https://istg.ie/home/fellowship-grant/

Ms Helen Mohan (@HelenMohan1) is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and the Director of Research at the International Medical Robotics Academy (IMRA).

Ms Mohan is the 2021 RCSI PROGRESS fellowship recipient and completed an advanced cancer fellowship in pelvic exenteration, peritoneal disease and robotic surgery at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne, followed by a further colorectal clinical and academic fellowship at Austin Health, Melbourne.

PROGRESS Women in Surgery Fellowship
https://www.rcsi.com/surgery/training/fellowship-opportunities/progress-women-in-surgery-fellowship

Mr Michael Flanagan (ST7 General and Colorectal Surgery) and Mr Robert O’Connell (ST HPB/General Surgery) took part in the Atlantic Surgical Leadership Exchange Programme 2023/2024. They recount their experiences in Vietnam at the Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam in Trauma, Colorectal and Hepatobiliary surgery.

Atlantic Surgical Leadership Exchange Programme
https://www.rcsi.com/surgery/global-surgery/education

This episode was recorded with Professor Calvin Coffey at the Sylvester O'Halloran perioperative symposium in Limerick in March 2024.

The Sylvester O'Halloran symposium was founded in 1992 and is an important date in the calendar for Irish and International surgical research.

Read more about Prof Calvin Coffey and the Sylvester O'Halloran meeting here

https://www.ul.ie/hri/person/hri-member/prof-calvin-coffey

https://soh.isrs.ie/?page_id=1064

In this episode Jessica Ryan and Ms Cathy McDonald, a former hostage negotiator with Police Scotland, discuss the art of communication in stressful situations and how her experience can be applied to healthcare.

Website: https://www.artofcommunication.co.uk/about-aoc
X (Twitter) https://twitter.com/CathyAofC

In part 2 of our podcast with David Nott and Morgan McMonagle discuss trauma training in Ireland and abroad as well as preparing for mass casualty events.

Further information on trauma training is available here.

Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills (DSTS) - https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/education-and-exams/courses/search/definitive-surgical-trauma-skills-dsts/

David Nott Foundation - https://davidnottfoundation.com/

In this episode, Vinnie Varley discusses surgery on the front line with Prof David Nott and Mr Morgan McMonagle, delving into current warzones and training surgeons to work in these environments.

In this episode, Prof Hill describes a systematic approach to evaluating lumps in the clinic and subsequent management

Professor Hill is Professor and Chair of Surgery in RCSI, Beaumont and Head of the School of Medicine, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. He graduated from UCD and did his basic surgical training in Dublin, and his middle grade surgical training in London.

He did a basic two year fellowship with Dr John Daly at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and The New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center in the United States. He returned to Ireland to do his Senior Registrar training on the National Training Program in Ireland.

He also did a Clinical Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York prior to taking up his consultant appointment. His clinical interests are in the area of breast cancer and melanoma. His laboratory research interest are in the transcriptional control of breast cancer in particular the role of the coregulatory proteins.

In part 2 of our discussion with Prof Heneghan, we cover the logistics of running a bariatric unit as well as exciting developments for the future.

Prof. Helen Heneghan, UCD’s first female Professor of Surgery, is a Consultant Bariatric and General Surgeon in St Vincents University Hospital.

A native of Corofin in Galway, Helen Heneghan graduated in Medicine from NUI, Galway in 2005. She Completed the RCSI Higher Surgical Training scheme in General Surgery. During her training, she spent two years in the Bariatric Metabolic Institute in Cleveland Clinic, Ohio.

Following this she completed a Bariatric Fellowship in the UK (Chester, Liverpool) before returning to a Consultant post in Ireland.

Twitter/X: @HeneghanHelen