Surgical research and careers event abstract winners

Congratulations to the three inaugural winners of the Grey Turner Prize for Excellence in Academic Surgery, which were awarded at our NHIP Academy Celebrating Academic Surgery event.

The event brought together surgical researchers to network and build collaborations in the craft speciality fields. This included a panel discussion on clinical academic routes and the Grey Turner Public lecture by Prof Ian Chetter, Professor of Vascular Surgery at the University of Hull, on a decade of surgical wounds research.

The prizes were awarded following invited abstract presentations and judged by a panel of senior Clinical Academic Surgeons and George Grey Turner’s Grandson, Prof Nick Wilcox, Oxford University. Joint first place winners were Mr Amar Rajgor, ENT registrar at Newcastle Hospitals’ Freeman Hospital, and Dr Corey Chan, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery.

Mr Rajgor’s presentation was entitled “CT-based radiomic markers are independent prognosticators of survival in advanced laryngeal cancer: A pilot study.” He has undertaken first-of-its-kind research into advanced laryngeal cancer (or voice box cancer) and how artificial intelligence (AI) can analyse medical imaging from CT scans to predict survival.

Dr Corey Chan is a Co-Investigator of SarcoSIGHT, a randomised controlled trial of fluorescence guided sarcoma surgery versus standard of care.  His presentation was entitled: “Mechanisms of preferential tumour uptake of indocyanine green in sarcoma.”

Second place was awarded to Dr Sarah Picker, following her presentation entitled: “Gall or nothing: should we be sending all gallbladders for histology?”

NHIP Academy Manager, Dr Amy Brown, said: “We are very grateful to the Grey Turner family and their endowment which provides funds for these prestigious academic prizes and the Grey Turner public lecture. George Grey Turner was a pioneering surgeon and Newcastle University alumnus, and it is fitting that we can celebrate his legacy alongside the groundbreaking surgical research that continues to take place in our region.”

Mr Sandip Nandhra, Vascular Consultant and NHIP Academy Academic Surgery lead. said: “It was wonderful to facilitate and participate in the NHIP Celebrating Research in the Craft Specialities event.

“Surgical research is a vitally  important part of enhancing patient care; and we succeeded in bringing together researchers from diverse surgical backgrounds and promoted a some real collaboration, across and within specialisms which was terrific. I am hopeful future events like this will be an even more successful and wide-reaching occasion, acting as a hub for surgical research endeavours in Newcastle and the North East.”