Authors: Associate Professors Claudia Di Bella and James Lee – Co-chairs

The 14th annual Developing a Career and Skills in Academic Surgery (DCAS) course will be held Monday 1 May 2023, leading to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Annual Scientific Congress at the RACS Adelaide office. 

Thanks to the Educational Grant from Johnson & Johnson, delegates will receive an exciting range of informative topics that promise to engage and inspire. 

We have an exceptional faculty from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States who will share personal experience and tips on what it takes to start, develop, and continue a productive career in academic surgery. 

As always, we look forward to renewing acquaintances with our American colleagues from the Association for Academic Surgery, whose continued support for our DCAS course deserves special acknowledgement. 

The program begins with a session exploring the topic of ‘A Career in Academic Surgery’. Other sessions include ‘Choose Your Own Research Adventure’ and ‘Tools For Academic Output’. 

Highlights from the program include hot topic speaker Associate Professor Rhea Liang who will present on ‘Intersectionality of a surgeon’. The keynote presentation, ‘Research, translational and clinical deployment—the sky’s not the limit!’ will be delivered by Professor Gordon Wallace from the University of Wollongong, Australia. 

The two concurrent workshops will cater to those new to research or academic surgery with the session ‘Finding My Fit: Try Before You Buy’ covering a different types of research genre; and ‘I Found my Fit: Money Can’t Buy Happiness, but… ’ for those looking to develop their surgical research career through research funding and navigating successful grant writing.

Previous attendees frequently describe the course as inspirational, transformational and well targeted to every level—from medical students to department heads. Faculty continuously state that there is nothing more satisfying than seeing attendees benefit from the experience. For SET Trainees in General Surgery, attendance at this course is acknowledged by General Surgeons Australia as equivalent to attending one compulsory Trainees’ Day.

Research is about continuous improvement and progress, and we invite you to attend the DCAS Course in Adelaide in May 2023—you will be impressed and inspired. 

Event details including registration applications, prices and the provisional program can be found on the DCAS website at: www.tinyurl.com/DCAS2023