Professionalism in a changing landscape is the theme for this year’s RCSI annual surgical Millin Meeting. More than 250 Irish surgeons will attend the meeting to discuss issues affecting the surgical profession in Ireland today.

Mr Declan J. Magee, RCSI President, said: “There is no doubt that surgeons today practice in an ever-changing environment. Services are delivered by teams rather than individual practitioners, the framework for our health service seems to be repeatedly reconstructed, surgeons practice with restrained resources under increased scrutiny and with a duty of candour, in the context of intolerance of imperfect outcomes and with a looming crisis in indemnity insurance. With these issues in mind, medical professionalism, health service re-engineering, medical indemnity and multi-disciplinary care will be discussed at this year’s Millin Meeting.”

The purpose of the Millin Meeting is to promote best practice and innovation, to highlight issues affecting the profession and seek solutions to these challenges.

The keynote lecture ‘Attempts to Innovate in Coloproctology – Lessons Learnt’ will be delivered by Profession Norman S Williams, Director National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation, Barts and Immediate Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Later in the afternoon, Professor Williams will be conferred with an Honorary Fellowship of RCSI.

The 37th Millin Lecture ‘The Evolving Treatment Paradigm of Thyroid Cancer’ will be delivered by Professor James Paul O’Neill, Professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, RCSI.

The Carmichael Lecture will be given by David Walsh on the topic ‘Winning is Not All that Matters’. Walsh is Chief Sports Writer for the Sunday Times. He is a four-time Irish Sports Writer of the Year and a four-time UK Sports Writer of the Year. He was named UK Journalist of the Year in 2012 for his 13-year investigation into seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

As part of the day’s proceedings, a new surgery and anatomy iPhone game, ‘SurgiQuiz,’ will be launched. The iPhone game was developed by the RCSI Department of Surgical Affairs in conjunction with the Anatomy department. The game challenges users to answer anatomy and surgery questions under time limits and in different ways. The game is supported by a real time online leader-board and CPD points can be obtained by playing the game.