Recent News

PRESIDENT’S AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2011

I welcome all members to the first President’s Newsletter for 2012. Here in I provide a summary of some of the recent activities of members and the ANZSCTS Executive.

Vice-President (President-elect) and Chairman, Board of Studies

Members will be aware that Michael Rowland recently stepped down from the above positions. I wish to thanks Michael for his outstanding contribution to the ANZSCTS and in particular to education and training in our specialty.

There was one nomination for the position of Vice-President (President-elect) and Robert Costa has been elected unopposed.

The Board of Studies has appointed Dick Bunton as its new Chairman and Andrew Cochrane as its Deputy Chairman.

Congratulations to Robert, Dick and Andrew upon their appointments and the Society wishes them well in their ongoing endeavours.

Cardiothoracic Representative on RACS Council

The nine year term of Mark Edwards will be complete in May 2012. On behalf of the ANZSCTS and the Cardiothoracic Fellows of the College I would like to thank Mark for his outstanding representation of our specialty. Within the RACS Education Portfolio he held the positions of Chairman of the Board of Surgical Education and Training, Chairman of the Court of Examiners (also having served as our Senior Examiner for eight years) and Censor in Chief. Mark has been a great advocate for our specialty and also a magnificent contributor to surgery at large whilst on the RACS Council.

Julie Mundy will succeed Mark as our representative. Julie has also been active within the Education Portfolio of RACS having served on the Surgical Sciences Examination Committee, the Physiology Committee and as a member of the Cardiothoracic Court of Examiners, most recently as the Senior Examiner.

 RACS ASC 2012, Kuala Lumpur

Preparations are well advanced for the Cardiothoracic component of the RACS ASC in May to be held in Kuala Lumpur. The scientific program is being organised from Sydney with co-ordination from Paul Bannon and assistance from Michael Vallely, Brian McCaughan, Tristan Yan and Morgan Windsor. The international visitors will be Valerie Rusch (New York), Alexander Paterson (St. Louis) and Scott LeMaire (Houston). The meeting will have both a cardiac and thoracic focus.

A copy of the Cardiothoracic program is attached to this Newsletter. I strongly urge as many members as possible to attend the ASC as there will be much to be gained from our program as well as the program directed to all surgeons irrespective of specialty.

ANZSCTS ASM 2012, Hobart 

The 2012 ANZSCTS ASM will be held in Hobart at the Hotel Grand Chancellor from November 11 to 14 and the conveners are Ash Hardikar and Mark Murton. A Techno Practicum College on the Monday morning will again be organized by Homayoun Jalali. There will also be the usual Nursing and Trainee Education Days. Confirmed visitors are John Brown (USA), Ralph Damiano (USA), David Richens (UK) and Hans-Joachim Schafers (Germany).

RACS ASC 2013, Auckland

ANZSCTS will be participating in the RACS ASC in May 2013 in Auckland. The Convener will be Mr Indran Ramanathan.

ANZSCTS ASM 2013, Darwin

The 2013 ANZSCTS ASM will be held at the Darwin Convention Centre during the month of August. The exact dates and the Convener are to be confirmed.

RACS ASC 2014, Melbourne

The RACS has requested that the ANZSCTS nominate a Cardiothoracic Convener for the ASC 2014 which is to be held in Melbourne. Any Melbourne member interested in convening our component of the ASC 2014 should contact myself or Nick Danes by the end of March.

ANZSCTS Logo

Following the recent name change for the Society, the Executive has engaged a marketing specialist to design a new logo for the Society. A number of possible logos are currently under consideration. Members may also wish to forward suggestions for a new logo to Nick Danes.

Relationship between the RACS and the Specialty Societies

As mentioned in my last Newsletter, a Governance Review Steering Committee consisting of all 13 Specialty Surgery Society Presidents, the RACS President and RACS Vice-President is overseeing two Working Parties to address the relationship between the RACS and the Specialty Societies.

Both Working Parties (Governance Review and Educational Relationships) are chaired by Mr Garry Wilson, the Expert Community Advisor on the RACS Council and have broad Specialty Society and RACS representation. Our CEO, Michael Nugara, is on the Governance Working Party and I am on the Education Working Party. Both Working Parties have met a couple of times and a preliminary report was presented to the February 2012 RACS Council meeting.

A number of continuous improvement issues have been identified which will be acted upon immediately. These include:

1. Improving the RACS engagement with the Specialist Society Presidents and Executives through formal meetings and visits to Society Scientific and other meetings.
2. Improving the effectiveness of Society representatives on RACS Council (It has to be emphasized that this has not been an issue for ANZSCTS but it has been for others)
3. Further engagement of the Societies in the Surgical Leaders Forum (held three times each year)
4. Refinement of RACS and Society advocacy roles
5. Improving cost transparency with RACS and Societies charging only for the services they provide. RACS costs to be the subject of an “efficiency” review
6. A new Memorandum of Understanding be established between RACS and each Society
7. Streamlining and refinement of the RACS education committees

The major issue which will require much greater deliberation by all parties concerns overall governance of the RACS. Three general approaches are under consideration – fellowship, federate and corporate – with the exact description of each being work currently in progress. In terms of the educational relationship between the RACS and the Societies a faculty model has been suggested by a couple of Societies and likewise the exact nature of such is pending.

I will report further on these developments and the implications for ANZSCTS in the next Newsletter.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Andrew Newcomb and myself attended the recent RACS Professional Development and Standards Board meeting. It appears that a number of our members and Cardiothoracic Fellows are not CPD compliant. Registration with the Medical Board of Australia is conditional upon being CPD compliant and it is likely that the MBA will introduce a process of CPD compliance verification in the near future.

ANZSCTS Policy/Position/Guideline Writing Panels

The panel addressing the establishment of new cardiac surgery units (Peter Skillington, Gil Shardey & Ash Hardikar) has completed its document which has been reviewed by the Executive. It has recently been distributed for member feedback due by 31 March. The final document will be placed on the ANZSCTS web site.

A revascularisation appropriateness guidelines group has been established in collaboration with the Cardiac Society. The ANZSCTS representatives are Paul Bannon, Michael Vallely, and Marco Larobina. There are three interventional Cardiologists, and the intention to invite three non-interventional Cardiologists to participate. The objective is to develop guidelines suitable for the Australasian communities on coronary revascularisation.

A policy on percutaneous valve insertion (Hugh Wolfenden, Jayme Bennets, Andrew Clarke) will also be developed in co-operation with the Cardiac Society.

If members have suggestions regarding other issues which require addressing by a writing panel please forward them to myself or to the ASCTS Secretariat.

Post-fellowship Education and Training (PFET) in Thoracic Surgery

Feedback on our draft submission has been provided by the RACS PFET Board Chairman and the document is to be further refined. Support for our program has been obtained from General Surgeons Australia and the New Zealand Association of General Surgeons. We are also seeking input from the Australian and New Zealand Gastro Oesophageal Surgery Association (ANZGOSA) especially with respect to the status of oesophageal surgery within the program. It is hoped that our proposal will be ready for evaluation by the RACS PFET Committee in the coming months.

ANZSCTS Web Site (www.anzscts.org)

The ANZSCTS web site was launched at the Queenstown ASM.  Member feedback has been positive and suggestions for further enhancement are most welcome. The Find a Surgeon section is currently being upgraded.

Younger Fellows (5 years and under) Meeting - 17 March 2012

Andrew Newcomb and a number of Younger Fellows have organized a meeting of Younger Fellows to discuss a number of challenges facing our specialty at present and in the foreseeable future.

The meeting, strongly endorsed by the ANZSCTS Executive, will be held in Melbourne (includes a teleconferencing capability for those unable to attend in person) to discuss the following topics with the aim of developing a number of recommendations for the ANZSCTS Executive to consider:

• The relationship between RACS and ANZSCTS

• The process of IMG assessment and accreditation

• Training in the era of increasing trans-cutaneous / catheter based
interventions

• The role of the ANZSCTS in establishing local guidelines for the
treatment of different types of cardiac and thoracic disease

If there is a Younger Fellow in this category who wishes to attend the meeting and does not know about it, please contact Nick Danes.

Cardiothoracic Trainees Workshop – 22-24 March 2012

Preparations for the workshop are on track for this year’s Trainee Workshop co-ordinated by Andrew Cochrane. SET 1 and 2 trainees have been invited on this occasion. Previously this workshop was only for senior trainees. A Thoracic simulator workshop will be conducted by the international guest speaker, Dr. Rick Feins.

Article in the March Medical Journal Australia – ‘Stories of the Music of Hope’ - Phillip Antippa

One of our members, Phillip Antippa is a talented viola player, and ran the Corpus Medicorum (the chamber orchestra of the Australian Doctors Orchestra), as a hobby. The latest issue of the Medical Journal Australia includes an article on Phillip and his treatment of a fellow band member and how the health profession deals with peoples hopes and optimism in dealing with cancer. This has been written by a Medical Oncologist, a Behavioural Scientist and Phillip.

Refer to the www.anzscts.org website under the members login and drop down ‘Media Articles’ to view the article.

ANZSCTS membership subscriptions

These are now due. Please contact Nick Danes should you require an invoice.

Current ANZSCTS Executive

President                                                                    Julian Smith
Vice-President                                                           Robert Costa
Secretary/Treasurer                                                  Robert Costa
Immediate Past-President                                      David Marshman
Chairman, Board of Studies                                   Dick Bunton
ASCTS Representative on RACS Council           Mark Edwards
Chairman, Science and Education Committee  Peter Skillington
Elected Australian representative                         Andrew Cochrane
Elected New Zealand representative                   Harsh Singh

Chief Executive                                                         Michael Nugara
Chief Operating Officer                                           Nick Danes

Julian Smith
President