 Commitment to surgical audit from all levels of the profession was on show at the College’s annual Symposium on 10 March
The highlight of this year’s Audit Symposium was the McKeown Lecture, delivered by Professor Zygmunt Krukowski, Professor of Clinical Surgery at Aberdeen University. A well-known laparoscopic and endocrine surgeon, in his Lecture ‘So you think you want a computer’, Professor Krukowski charted his personal experiences in surgical audit over four decades, from the 1980s to 2011.
Pictured: RCSEd President David Tolley presents the McKeown Medal to Professor Zygmunt Krukowski, Professor of Clinical Surgery at Aberdeen University
He recalled the physical enormity of the early mainframe computer in comparison to the dimensions of the smartphone of today, the labour involved and the access challenges of dial-up phone modems in comparison to universal availability of 3G hook-up, and the power, versatility and creativity of current software. In spite of all that, database provision at national level has failed to match the advances of technology and his thesis was that commitment to personal data collection and endorsement of its validity remains a professional imperative – as important today as at the start of his own journey through surgical audit.The Surgeon in Training Medal for the best paper from the plenary session went to Dr Ali Al-Hussaini for his presentation ‘Have two UK national guidelines had any effect on grommets day-case utilisation and rate over the last 10 years?’A significant number of presentations came from the same unit, demonstrating the clear educational benefits of trainers committed to surgical audit. The best poster prize was won by Dr Salma E Ealamin for his poster ‘Surgical case note audit: new tool for achieving excellence.’This year’s event attracted over 200 submissions of audit projects for presentation and a total of 87 papers were delivered in four concurrent sessions. Again, the feedback from the chairpersons on delivery style, content and originality was appreciated by delegates. That access to ‘tricks of the trade’ in presenting is clearly a valuable part of this highly enjoyable meeting.Next year’s Audit Symposium will be integrated into the Lister celebrations, but will revert back to standard format in 2013.
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