At this year’s ESCP Annual Meeting in Nice, Richard Brady, consultant colorectal surgeon at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospital in the UK, will lead the Coloproctology 3.0: The Cutting Edge of Online Innovation symposium which focuses on how technology will impact the future of colorectal surgery. We spoke to Richard about the session.
This year’s session will feature a mix of international speakers chosen to give a broad view of the technological horizon within coloproctology including high profile names such as Steven Wexner, Gianluca Pellino and Sam Atallah. All of whom are excellent speakers who are all actually involved in developing or innovating with advanced technology and are not simply commenting on it.
Additionally, the involvement of Michael Seres, the high profile and influential colorectal e-patient, bowel transplant recipient, stoma device innovator and global patient advocate, is a great asset to the symposium.
This is the third consecutive year Mr Brady has been involved in the Coloproctology 3.0 session and says:
“It’s been great to see this symposium become so successful and achieve a bigger impact each year. This year we’ve got a fantastic speaker line-up whose hindsight can guide our foresight. I know they will use their time to both educate and entertain the audience.”
Topics covered in Coloproctology 3.0 in Nice include advances in Artificial Intelligence, social media, virtual reality, apps, robotics, collaborative research, teaching, training and novel treatments. The session is not just about slick presentation, the speakers will draw on the best of the evidence base and breaking research to support the technology they comment on.
Mr Brady said:
“These technological developments are set to become not only the biggest issues in surgery but will also fundamentally reshape our future society. Surgeons will see things they will not believe in this session and will understand the huge amount of work that is going on globally to revolutionise surgery using the very best that technology can offer. One of my favourite parts of the year is watching from the podium as jaws drop in the audience during these sessions.
“The world is getting smaller and communication, collaboration and the translation of ideas is becoming more rapid. The rate of innovation in our specialty is breath-taking and all coloproctologists, younger surgeons in particular, should attend this session to stay current. All surgeons should know where we are now and where we are heading with the technological revolution of surgery. You never know, the next big idea to shake up our specialty may be generated by someone in the audience.”
In terms of how technological advances will benefit patients, Mr Brady added:
“There is no doubt that, as we have access to secure, quicker, and more mobile technology, the traditional access points to health and storage of data become blurred.
“Teleconferencing, mobile apps for information and health monitoring, AI to personalise treatment pathways, automated decision making pathways, better and more autonomous robots taking over traditional surgery, VR to train and plan in surgery, and fully accessible electronic medical records are just a few areas were work is already underway and set to expand into normal practice in the future.”
Speaking about where colorectal surgery will be in five years’ time, Mr Brady said:
“Our surgical and patient innovators continue to push boundaries and are now backed by the clinical trials and infrastructure to aid them in demonstrating effect. Our trainees are producing some of the largest, most insightful and globally coordinated studies that have ever been published. Our patients are organised online in support networks and are using those connections to benefit the specialty.
“Colorectal surgery is the place to be and the place to hear about where it we’re headed is the Coloproctology 3.0 session at Nice 2018.”
Coloproctology 3.0: The Cutting Edge of Online Innovation - Wed 26th Sept at 17:00
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