Authors: Associate Professor Claudia Di Bella and Associate Professor James Lee

The 2024 Developing a Career and Skills in Academic Surgery (DCAS) course, which runs annually on the Monday of the RACS Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) week, will be held in Otautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, on 6 May.

The DCAS course is hosted by the Section of Academic Surgery of RACS, designed to inspire and guide surgeons, Trainees and medical students towards a career in academic surgery.

The course faculty is comprised of academic surgeons from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, including high-profile representatives from the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) America. The collaboration between RACS and AAS has strong, longstanding foundations, and the DCAS course is a great opportunity to meet and network with our American colleagues and learn from their perspectives. This year, the AAS faculty will be led by Dr Juliet Emamaullee, abdominal organ transplant surgeon from Keck Medicine of USC (Los Angeles, USA).

The DCAS course will provide attendees with tools to navigate the complexities of academia in the context of a busy surgical career. Talks will cover a range of topics from exploring the different ways of being an academic surgeon, to insights on how to write compelling abstracts for conferences or manuscripts. It will also include tips to obtain funds to begin and sustain research projects. Among these, the hot topic talk will explore the intricacies of artificial intelligence in surgery and academia; while the keynote speaker will discuss different ways to perform high quality research in various institutional settings.

The DCAS course is a great opportunity to learn about academic surgery  and also meet local and international surgeons who have embraced academia as part of their surgical career. We encourage and welcome all surgeons, Trainees and medical students to participate in this year’s DCAS in Christchurch.

For more information, please visit the RACS Events website or contact academic.surgery@surgeons.org

Associate Professor Claudia Di Bella and Associate Professor James Lee