19 - 21 September 2018 Murrayfield, Edinburgh AUGIS gathered at Murrayfield for its Annual Scientific Meeting and it was opened with warm words of welcome (contrasting with the chill winds blowing outside) by outgoing AUGIS President Richard Hardwick, plus local organisers Graeme Couper and Peter Lamb. It was a busy few days for delegates - just trying to keep up with the ever-changing weather in the Scottish capital - with the main meeting plus several parallel sessions ensuring there was something for everyone. It was also preceded by a CNS and AHP morning with sessions on Living with Cancer, Dietetic follow-up, palliative care and more(pictured below). At the same time, an AUGIS Trainee Surgeon session was underway with an innovative programme covering all the sub-specialties. Back to the main hall and the main meeting kicked off with Prehabilitation – what, why and how? Declan Dunne described the benefits of prehabilitation - pointing out that “surgery is equivalent to asking a patient to walk rapidly for several days” and offered trial results. Louise Jones then took attendees through the design and delivery of a pre-hab clinic in Liverpool which saw 231 patients in its first year with promising results, both physically and emotionally. A talk on delivering enhanced recovery for HPB patients by Robert Sutcliffe concluded by saying that ERAS can be implemented in HPB patents but the evidence base remains low. Then it was on to Complex teams and how they can succeed – and Simon Paterson Brown brought his great experience to this subject concluding: “It’s difficult managing teams as we try to extend our work and help patients with increasingly complex conditions. There is a lot of data showing that we cause adverse events. Teams are complex, the patient is central.” Professor Ray Padbury discussed Factors affecting patient outcomes: individual, team and system. He said: “We tend to think we can learn most from failure but in fact success is a great teacher as well”. He also gave the interesting example of a study which showed that female surgeons had better outcomes than male surgeons. Vigorous debates have become something of a hallmark of AUGIS meetings and this year was no exception. Delegates debated This house believes that robotic surgery is the future with Stephen White and Rafael Diez-Nieto battling for honours. The meeting was also privileged to hear from Don Low, on Giant Paraesophageal Hernias: The When Why and How of Surgical repair and from Bill Allum, an AUGIS Guest Lecturer, on Excellence by design - implications for Upper GI Surgery. The British Journal of Surgery Lecture (BJS) on How Randomised Control Trials have changed gastric cancer treatment was delivered by Dr Takeshi Sano, Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan AUGIS Winter 2018 Newsletter 22 Other well-received topics in the action-packed meeting included RCTs in HPB, Futuregazing and Quality performance indicators in cancer treatment. The meeting concluded with a very interesting final talk from Abrie Botha on 3D or not 3D: Is 3D laparoscopy the next big thing?. There was just time to announce prize winners – congratulations everyone – and welcome our new President, Giles Toogood. Away from the conference, delegates found time to network and socialise with each other and with our invaluable industry partners. The Annual Dinner in the stunning surroundings of the National Museum of Scotland was a spectacular success with a Piper welcoming guests (including Mark Taylor and Brendan Visser pictured below)on arrival and setting the scene for a memorable evening. 21st AUGIS Annual Scientific Meeting Report 21st AUGIS Annual Scientific Meeting Report AUGIS Winter 2018 Newsletter 23