November 2021

The 3SCTS Meeting that was planned for Cairns in November 2021 has been rescheduled. However, the needs of our trainees continue and we have made the decision to continue with the Trainees Day that would have coincided with the 3SCTS Meeting.  This is scheduled for Saturday the 13th of November 2021.

In addition, due to the cancelled ANZSCTS ASM in 2020, and the now rescheduled 3SCTS meeting, SET Trainees and Pre-SET Registrars have not had a local opportunity to present research they have undertaken.  Hence on Sunday 14th of November, the Cardiothoracic Surgery Registrar Research Presentation Day has been arranged as an online presentation meeting for registrars.  This will serve as an opportunity for them to present research, as well as complete their mandatory training requirement of an ANZSCTS ASM presentation.  The Patrick Pritzwald-Stegman prize will be awarded to one of these presentations.  Attendance will be requested from the RACS Board of CTS, ANZSCTS executive and Supervisors of Training.

COVID is currently the greatest challenge to organising training for a group across Australia and New Zealand. The most COVID proof plan is distributed training that avoids the need to travel. The structure for the November Trainees Meeting is thus to be a series of hubs. The plan is to have separate hubs for trainees in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Wellington.

The section of the syllabus that will be covered on the day is the Tricuspid valve. The structure of the day will be a series of online lectures run through this website followed by a wet lab using pig hearts focusing on the tricuspid valve.  

The COVID restrictions are highly variable between these locations and may change between now and the date of the meeting. We have structured a hub system so that no interstate or international travel is required and the numbers of trainees and faculty will hopefully fall below restrictions on gatherings and hence will not restrict the trainees from meeting with local faculty and Industry Sponsors.

Nevertheless, COVID restrictions may still prevent congregation at a hub, and so for clarity there are two possible attendance: 

Locations in Lockdown without the ability to congregate: Online only

For these States without the ability to congregate, currently New South Wales and Victoria, a hub will not be arranged and Trainees will instead only attend the lecture portion of the day via online access from their own homes or places of work.

It is possible that there are regional variations in the ability to travel, and so attendance by trainees to the hubs may be different across the same state.  In this situation, trainees are to abide by local restrictions, and if unable to travel to the capital city hub, only attend the online lecture portion of the day.

 Locations in which congregation is permissible: In person Hubs

Currently these sites are Brisbane, Wellington, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth. In these locations the plan is for Trainees within that state to travel to the hub in that state. Faculty Surgeons will also attend the hub and Industry Representatives who can help facilitate the wet lab can also attend the hub.  Locations will be decided up so that density restrictions allow for this level of attendance.  

Should restrictions lift in Melbourne and Sydney, then arrangements will be made for in-person hubs in these cities, though this cannot be arranged if restrictions are lifted less than two weeks prior to the meeting.  That is, restrictions on travel and congregating have to be lifted two weeks prior to the meeting for a hub to be arranged.

Cardiothoracic Surgery Registrar Research Presentation Day

This will be entirely online.

The Abstract submission will open on Wednesday 22 September 2021, and close on 17 October 2021. Abstracts will be accepted as a variety of formats, including posters and verbal presentations. Abstract Submission has now closed.

SET Trainees and Pre-SET, Unaccredited registrars are encouraged to submit abstracts.