A Letter from the President, RCSI

Surgeons Scope Magazine

RCSI Fellows and Members,

As the key professional surgical membership organisation, our role is to drive the profession forward and support surgical Fellows and Members in achieving excellent surgical care for everyone. A recent census shows that there are more than 11,000 RCSI Fellows and Members and 1,700 A liate Members – a powerful community across 89 countries globally.

RCSI’s purpose is to educate, assess and develop surgeons and members of the wider surgical community at all stages of their career, and to set and safeguard standards for the optimisation of delivery of care to surgical patients. Earlier this year, the College launched the RCSI Surgery for Ireland Report, outlining a number of key recommendations on how to create a better working environment, and how to optimise the training, recruitment and retention of sta .

RCSI attracts the most highly committed candidates to surgical training. RCSI Fellows, of whom we are immensely proud, are dedicated to a lifetime in healthcare, and we are fortunate in maintaining a lifelong, career-long connection with them.

With that career-long connection in mind, this issue of Surgeons

Scope celebrates a number of internationally recognised Fellows who have maintained strong links with RCSI. ese include Dr Houriya Kazim, FRCSI 1993, the rst female surgeon in the UAE, and Professor Dhananjaya Sharma, FRCSI 2013, a champion of low-cost healthcare solutions in the developing world. eir service to the surgical community is inspirational.

Fellows can make an impact in so many di erent ways. In For ey are Good Fellows (page 10), it is wonderful to read about the various roads travelled by RCSI Fellows. ese roads have led to mentoring young surgeons, contributing to groundbreaking research, initiating pioneering surgical techniques and introducing innovative technology. In whatever sphere they operate, Fellows are committed to excellence.

And this starts early. Ms Evelyn Murphy, who will nish her higher surgical training in 2023, is a prime example of how we can help shape the future for RCSI Fellows. She is a recipient of the 2023 PROGRESS Women in Surgery Fellowship, which will take her to Sydney where later this year she will receive specialised training in Minimally Invasive Surgery and in Foot and Ankle Surgery. Also in this issue, Professor Paul Balfe (Fellow 2006) describes the competency-based approach to training in trauma surgery in Trauma Surgery: New inking (page 14). He emphasises that the onus lies squarely with the trainers to only sign o a trainee when satis ed that the trainee is capable of managing the breadth of undi erentiated emergency take as a day 1 consultant.

Recently, I have had the great honour of bestowing Honorary Fellowships on surgeons who are making a di erence all over the world. During Charter Week, Dr Vivian McAlister received an Honorary Fellowship for his many distinctions, including the important role he played as a member of the Royal Canadian Medical Service in the Canadian Armed Forces. Dr Ajit K. Sachdeva received an Honorary Fellowship for his achievements as a surgeon, educator and scholar. Professor Maria B. Majella Doyle was awarded an Honorary Fellowship for her role in US national transplant surgery and her inspiring mentorship of surgical trainees. Professor Richard Irving received an Honorary Fellowship for the impressive scope of his clinical practice including his contributions to implantation otology, chronic ear disease, facial nerve surgery and vertigo. And Dr John G. Meara was recognised for his work in global surgery, including his roles as co-chair for the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and commissioner on the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG era.

In April, I had the great personal honour to travel to Melbourne to present an Honorary Fellowship to Professor Graeme Clark AC, pioneer of the bionic ear or the multi-channel cochlear implant. I thank all of our Honorary Fellows for helping to transform the lives of so many people, through their dedicated work over recent decades and into the future. Print copies of Surgeons Scope are distributed without charge to Fellows and Members in Good Standing. Current articles and archives are made available to you online through Surgical Bulletin, the monthly newsletter sent to Fellows and Members. Please keep in touch with us and update us on your achievements so that we can share these with the rest of the community.