A message from the President of RCSI

3 April 2025

This month, I am pleased to report on the AIMS Summit, which I attended in Chicago in mid-March alongside representatives of the Irish Surgical Training Group (ISTG).

Furthermore, as planning commences for Millin Meeting 2025, I thought it timely to share an update on the on-going work of the National Surgical Research Support Centre and to spotlight the session hosted by the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative at the Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium.

AIMS Summit 2025

In the lead up to St Patrick’s Day, I travelled to Chicago for the AIMS Summit, which was held on Thursday 13 and Friday, 14 March. Established in 2023, this was the first year that the conference took place in the US, hosted by Northwestern University. There was an excellent programme of talks, workshops and panel discussions.

Billed as a conference where medical technology and innovation connects with clinical practice, the summit explored a range of different topics including the insights that healthcare professionals can garner from business leaders, the characteristics of the Clinician-Innovator and the role that AI can play in healthcare – from transforming clinical workflows to unlocking new therapies.

It was fantastic to hear several RCSI Fellows speak at the event including Professor Nicholas J. Mouawad FRCSI, Professor Majella Doyle FRCSI, Mr Gary O'Toole FRCSI, Mr Graham Roche-Nagle FRCSI and Professor Kieran Murphy FRCSI. Our own Professor Cathal Kelly, RCSI Vice Chancellor and CEO joined Eric G. Neilson, Vice President for Medical Affairs and the Lewis Landsberg Dean at Feinberg School of Medicine, for a ‘fireside discussion’ regarding the current challenges and trends in medical education, that was co-chaired by Marianne Green, Vice Dean for Medical Education at the Feinberg School of Medicine and myself.

Our conversation covered a series of topical themes in medical education including the role of research in medical education, how to assess progress during education and training, and how to support well-being among medical students and doctors in training.

The AIMS Summit hosted Minister for Health Dr Jennifer Carroll O’Neill TD and Secretary General Robert Watt during their very busy trip to North America over the St Patrick Day weekend.

My thanks to all the organisers of the summit, which continues to go from strength to strength and serves to highlight the value of the enduring connections between our community both in Ireland and America. I wish to especially extend my congratulations to the co-founders of the summit: Mr Peter Naughton FRCSI and Professor Heron Rodriquez of Northwestern University, for leading yet another hugely successful conference.

Irish Surgical Trainee Group and Early Career Surgeons Network

Many of you will have read the report on the ISTG meeting at Charter. I extended my thanks and congratulations to the ISTG committee when I met them in March where we spoke about a range of issues of importance to current trainees. With the support of Council, nominated representatives of the ISTG and the Early Career Surgeons Network (ECSN) are included in RCSI’s Committee of Surgical Affairs (CSA) and the Irish Postgraduate Surgical Training Committee (ISPTC).

This is an important mechanism of two-way communication for members of ISTG and ECSN to enable surgeons and trainees to stay informed about topical issues, but also to raise and escalate matters of concern in a timely fashion. I encourage surgeons to stay in contact with their representatives on these important committees. Thank you to committee chairs, Council Member Professor Kevin Conlon FRCSI, Chair of ISPTC and Council Member Professor John Quinlan FRCSI, Chair of CSA for their extensive work on behalf of RCSI and our profession.

Surgical research update

In March, the organising committee for the Millin Meeting met to commence preparations for this year’s conference, which will take place in RCSI on Friday, 14 November 2025. Mindful that planning is underway, it’s timely to update you on the work of the National Surgical Research Support Centre (NSRSC) as well as to report on a recent session hosted by the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative (ISRC) at the Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium.

As of last month, the NSRSC is supporting 12 homegrown surgical trials and is collaborating with 20 hospitals, 40 Principal Investigators and over 100 surgical trainees, NCHDs and hospital staff across Ireland. Just this week, they reached another milestone, recruiting 400 patients across NSRSC-supported trials.

The NSRSC are also involved in supporting several international surgical trials and I would like to congratulate Professor Aoife Lowery FRCSI and her team in University Hospital Galway for recruiting their first patient in the ATNEC surgical trial and Ms Jessie Elliott FRCSI, Trinity St James’s Cancer Unit for recruiting 60 patients to the SARONG-II trial.

The Centre, led by Professor Stewart Walsh and Dr Anne-Marie Byrne, is also launching a number of new trials this year providing more opportunities for surgeons interested in research to get involved. For further information on the work of the NSRSC as well as current and future trials, contact them directly on NSRSC@rcsi.ie.

Meanwhile, I was pleased to see the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative (ISRC) host a session as part of the recent Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium. Showcasing the current collaborative research projects being spearheaded by RCSI surgical trainees, the session was chaired by Ms Carolyn Cullinane FRCSI, ISRC Co-Chair, and commenced with updates on the current ISRC research portfolio, which included contributions from:

• Dr Mohammed Alazzawi MRCSI
• Dr Czara Kennedy MRCSI
• Dr Megan Power Foley MRCSI 
• Mr Noel Donlon FRCSI
• Mr Éanna Ryan FRCSI

Dr Conor Toale MRCSI, ISRC Educational Lead, devised a new research resource that brings together everything a first-time researcher needs to know, which was highlighted at the meeting and can be downloaded as a pdf here. Furthermore, Dr Toale and Dr Michael Devine MRCSI, ISRC RCSI Representative, are aiming to establish a high-fidelity, low occurrence (HALO) procedure in surgery consensus for a simulation-based training programme in the coming months. I encourage interested consultants to contact ISRC@rcsi.ie for further information.

The keynote speaker of the session was Mr Martin King, Past President of the Association of Surgeons in Training (ASIT) and Northern Irish surgical trainee, who gave an outstanding address on his personal surgical training journey as well as his hopes for greater cross-border collaboration in surgical research and training. The conversation he began in Limerick one weekend, moved to Belfast the next, when myself and several colleagues from RCSI and the Irish Surgical Training Group attended the Association of Surgeons in Training annual conference. Special thanks to our wonderful teams across RCSI Surgical Affairs, the NSRSC and the Fellows and Members Office for giving up their weekends to support surgical meetings across Ireland.

Defining Clinical Governance for Surgery

The pivot in our health service towards a regionalised structure and the introduction of new infrastructure for scheduled care through surgical hubs and elective hospitals will impact the working lives of most surgeons in Ireland. At the same time as societal interest in surgical decision-making and outcomes increases, advances in surgery challenge us to change the way we practice. During a dynamic period of change like this, surgeons and their patients need clinical governance structures that not only promote the highest standards of care, but that also support learning and innovation.

For this reason, I established an Expert Group on Best Practice in Clinical Governance for Surgery last year. Led by one of our senior Council Members, Mr David Moore FRCSI, we hope to create space for a conversation among our profession on this important subject. The group have already completed a nationwide survey to uncover best practices and challenges in this area. Most recently, at Charter Meeting 2025 Mr Moore FRCSI and Professor Aisling Hogan FRCSI co-chaired a symposium on Best Practice in Clinical Governance in Surgery where a range of experts including Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer of the HSE, provided perspectives. The symposium culminated in the 32nd Carmichael Lecture, entitled 'Trust and Truth in Healthcare' by the distinguished Cork academic, Professor Deirdre Madden MRIA. Her lecture was a thoughtful reflection on the essence of the doctor-patient relationship in the modern era.

The work of the group will continue over the coming months and, as always, we value your participation and feedback.

Higher Surgical Training

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the very significant body of work undertaken by the Irish Surgical Postgraduate Training Committee (ISPTC), chaired by Professor Kevin Conlon FRCSI, and by RCSI’s Department of Surgical Affairs in recent weeks as they interviewed for Core and Higher Surgical Training posts across all specialties. My thanks also to the very many Consultant Surgeons and Council Members who took part in these selection processes. Your commitment and expertise in selecting and training the next generation of surgeons is invaluable.

For those who have been successful in their applications, congratulations and a warm welcome to the RCSI community. We are committed to your success. For those among you who have not yet been successful, I encourage you to reflect on any feedback you have received and to have a chat with your supervisors and mentors about areas for improvement. There are many different pathways to a successful career, so don’t lose hope. None of us navigate a surgical career without a few setbacks.

I hope each of you finds a little time to enjoy the longer days.

Professor Deborah McNamara

President, RCSI

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