Dr Jason Sicklick, general surgeon and surgical oncologist from University of California San Diego will be visiting  Royal North Shore Hospital on the 18th of February and speaking at Surgical Grand Rounds (5-6pm in the Kolling Auditorium).  Jason specialises in the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST),  primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC)  and in the role of genomic medicine in the provision of personalised care for cancer patients. The topic of his talk is `It’s More than Personal: Putting the “I” in Precision Oncology’.

Professors Hugh and Samra covering the RMO evening shift during the annual RMO handover party. The “Hello Goodbye Party” is a tradition at the RNS. At the end of each year, senior medical staff volunteer to provide cover on the wards to facilitate as many of the junior medical staff to attend the party.  This year doctors Tom Hugh, Jas Samra, Stephen Ruff and John Vandervord were the senior surgeons.

Westpac’s 2019 Innovation challenge for 2019 is now open. The theme for this year is open data. The themes relevant to health are aged care and government. For more information see their web page.

Opening of the 2019 challenge at the Sydney innovation hub.

“Although the dictum “see one, do one, teach one” may have characterized the way physicians learned clinical skills in the past, it is now clear that, for training to be effective, learners at all levels must have the opportunity to compare their performance against a standard and to continue to practice until competence is achieved.” – Wartman et al, 2018.

(1) Wartman, Steven A., and C. Donald Combs. “Medical Education Must Move From the Information Age to the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 93.8 (2018): 1107–1109. Web. <https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002044>.

(2) “Artificial Intelligence, Brain.”  Web Image. 4 Dec. 2018. <https://pixabay.com/en/artificial-intelligence-brain-think-3382507/>.