RCSI Charter Week 2025 to focus on 'Next Generation Surgery'
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Charter Week 2025 gets underway on Tuesday, 4 February, with a focus on the people and the technologies that are changing surgical practice.
This year’s theme is 'Next Generation Surgery' and throughout the week, delegates will have the opportunity to hear more about the future of robotic surgery, and gets hands on with the latest technology in our first-ever Robotic Learning Village.
The meeting will showcase the achievements of early-career surgeons and will also hear from leading voices about the impacts that transparency, societal expectations and changing healthcare governance structures will have on professional practice in surgery.
Professor Fergal J. O’Brien, RCSI Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, who, along with his team, is designing the implants and biomaterials that will become central to the practice of next-generation surgery, will deliver the 100th Colles Lecture entitled 'From Colles’ Fracture to Gene-Activated Biomaterials: A Journey Through Tissue Engineering at RCSI'.
The annual meeting is held at RCSI’s St Stephen’s Green campus in Dublin to mark the anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the College in 1784. Launching this year’s RCSI Charter Week programme, RCSI President Professor Deborah McNamara said: “Our focus this year is very much on the future of surgical practice. We’ll explore the ways our practice as surgeons is evolving technically and in terms of evolving patient expectations and a changing healthcare landscape. I am particularly delighted that this year we will hear from colleagues in the early years of their independent practice. These colleagues are the next generation of surgical leaders and are already, at this early stage of their careers, making an incredible impact on our profession and for their patients.
“I look forward to meeting colleagues at this year’s Charter Week meeting and, if you have yet to register, please do join us as we come together to ensure that we are ready for Next Generation Surgery,” added Prof. McNamara.
The meeting will commence on Tuesday, 4 February with the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) conference, the theme of which is ‘Data-Driven Healthcare: Planning, Delivering, Improving’. NOCA is a publicly funded independent institution, based in and supported by RCSI.
Wednesday, 5 February will open with a meeting of the National Clinical Programmes in Surgery, Trauma and Orthopaedics, and Emergency Medicine, who will host their annual health service quality improvement and innovations conference, including topics such as the surgical hubs and elective hospitals, innovations in surgery, and radiology.
On Thursday, 6 February the annual Johnson & Johnson Lecture will be delivered by Dr Carla Pugh, Professor of Surgery, Stanford University, California who will explore ‘Precision Learning & Data Sharing Through Wearable Technology. What’s AI Got To Do With It?’. The day will finish with the 35th Annual Videosurgery Meeting.
Trust, transparency, governance and innovation
The keynote speakers on the final day of Charter Week will present on the topic of ‘Trust and Truth in Healthcare’ and Prof. Deirdre Madden, Professor of Law, University College Cork, will deliver the 32nd Carmichael Lecture.
On Friday afternoon, the 100th Colles Lecture will be presented by Prof. Fergal J. O’Brien, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Professor of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine at RCSI. His lecture is entitled ‘From Colles’ Fracture to Gene-activated Biomaterials: a Journey Through Tissue Engineering at RCSI’.
Key symposiums will be held across the week in the areas of ‘The New Era of Transparency in Healthcare’; ‘Early Career Surgeon Impact on Practice and Policy; ‘Training for the Shift to Robotic Surgery’; ‘Crisis Management: What Have we Learnt?’; ‘Best Practice in Clinical Governance’ and “Pioneering the Future of Surgery: Medical Technology Innovation” Parallel sessions during the meeting include general surgery in childhood, trauma and orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, RCSI postgraduate faculties and the Irish Institute of Pharmacy, ophthalmic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, pelvic floor conditions, ENT/otolaryngology, breast surgery, plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery and vascular surgery.
On Saturday, 8 February, the Irish Surgical Training Group (ISTG) meeting will take place. ISTG is an independent entity run by surgical trainees. The ISTG meeting will conclude with the Bosco O’Mahony Lecture delivered by Ms Dilly Little, entitled ‘Grasp the nettle’.
To conclude the RCSI Charter Meeting, RCSI Fellows and Members are hosting their first family fun day, which will see over 40 surgical families attend for face-painting, a giant game of operation, tours of RCSI SIM Centre and many more activities.
