News
Surgical intelligence: human, artificial, emotional.
by Mark Hughes
The burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI) is garnering more and more attention but will it enhance or undermine health? Current AIs are ...
Translational medicine needs engaged surgeons, and vice versa
by Mark Hughes
The need for surgical innovation is no less pressing now than when humanity first learned to make a knife and, soon after, made its first surgical ...
Patient safety and surgery
by Mark Hughes
Last week, the WHO marked World Patient Safety Day. At its core, healthcare is singularly motivated by a desire to improve patient health and wellb...
Knowing more and more about less and less: how far should sub-specialisation go?
by Mark Hughes
Following the completion of surgical training in the UK, a new consultant is expected to be emergency-safe and competent in dealing with a given sp...
The call of the wild: biomimicry and surgical innovation
by Mark Hughes
Surgeons spend hours in the confines of small and sterile spaces: hospitals, clinic rooms, operating theatres, and body cavities. There is a lot to...
Expedition medicine for surgeons - from Shackleton to Syria
by Mark Hughes
Surgical training is increasingly structured, and for good reason. Tensions between service and training, together with reduced working hours, maki...
Looking versus seeing, surgery versus art
by Mark Hughes
Sculpting, painting, drawing and other artistic endeavours demand finely honed skills of observation combined with the ability to recapitulate (in ...
Surgical training in Scotland – a new balance between training and service delivery, enhanced by improved trainer-interactions and embedded simulation
by Mark Hughes
Surgery is considered a ‘craft’ specialty, demanding a combination of theoretical knowledge, manual dexterity, and wisdom/experience. The barber su...
The eoSurgical ESSQ scholarship – dispatches from Lusaka!
by Mark Hughes
Since inception, our aim at eoSurgical has been to improve surgical training worldwide. As part of this goal, in 2018 we partnered with the Unive...
Is a surgical singularity coming? Will the ever-quickening pace of technological advancement make surgeons better? Or redundant?
by Mark Hughes
About 5000 years ago, the wheel was conceived and deployed as a new technology. A little more than 500 years ago, the printing press was invented. ...
Global surgical enlightenment – knowledge exchange is not one-way.
by Mark Hughes
Across the world, surgical practises and standards vary remarkably. In some regions and for some people, cost is no object and the latest technolog...
Safer surgery – technical skills are just one part of the puzzle
by Mark Hughes
In March of 1977, one of the world’s deadliest aviation accidents occurred when two 747 jumbo jets collided on the runway in Tenerife. Whilst a num...