ACS President E. Christopher Ellison, MD, FACS, MAMSE, is back from a trip to Australia, where he met with colleagues from the ACS Australia and New Zealand Chapter, as well as attended the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Annual Scientific Congress in Adelaide. He provided the following report about his experience:
From April 30 to May 4, I visited Adelaide, Australia, in the territory of South Australia. I attended the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) ACS Chapter and the Royal Australasia College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress. My host for the chapter was a colon and rectal surgeon from Auckland, New Zealand, Andrew Hill, MB ChB, EdD, FACS, FRACS, FISS, FRSNZ, President and Governor of the ANZ ACS Chapter. My host for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons was the President Sally Langley, MB ChB, FRACS, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon from Christ Church.
The ANZ ACS Chapter consists of 320 members, of which 197 identify as general surgeons, with the remainder equally distributed across the surgical specialties; 285 are male. The meeting occurred as part of the RACS Congress. There was a good discussion at the meeting concerning several topics, including rural surgery and achieving equity in healthcare.
The chapter has a contest for the best scientific paper. There were 100 submissions, and five finalists presented their work at the ANZ Chapter ACS Surgical Forum. They were all excellent papers. Dr. Chris Varghese came in first place for his paper, "Drivers of opioid consumption after discharge from surgery: an international prospective cohort study." The prize includes travel to Clinical Congress 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he will present the paper at the Surgical Forum.
The theme for the RACS 91st Annual Scientific Congress was Equity in Surgery. Prior to the meeting, there was a community immersion day, during which participants were offered a Karuna Cultural Experience in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. Karuna people are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. During the Convocation Ceremony that occurred the evening prior to the congress, 175 surgeons were inducted into RACS—the culmination of 6 years of general and medical education and surgical training.
The opening session was exceptional, including a presentation by a Karuna individual in ceremonial native dress giving the customary greeting and honoring elders past, present, and future.
