Key Topics in Surgical Research and Methodology

Thanos Athanasiou, Reader in Surgery at Imperial College London and Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Hammersmith and St Mary s Hospitals. Mr Thanos Athanasiou specializes in Complex Aortic Surgery, Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG), Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery and Robotic Assisted Cardiothoracic Surgery. His institutional responsibility is to lead academic cardiac surgery. He is currently supervising eight MD/ PhD students and has published more than 220 peer reviewed research journal articles. e has given several invited lectures in national and international forums in the field of technology in cardiac surgery, healthcare delivery and quality of care. His specialty research interest includes bio-inspired robotic systems and their application in cardiothoracic surgery, outcomes research in cardiac surgery, surgical education and regenerative cardiovascular strategies.

Prof. Lord Ara Darzi, Head of Division of Surgery, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London. He holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London and the Institute of Cancer Research. He is also an honorary consultant surgeon at St Mary s Hospital, and the Royal Marsden Hospitals. Between 2007-09 he held the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords) at the Department of Health. Professor Darzi and his team are internationally respected for their innovative work in the advancement of minimal invasive surgery and in the development and use of allied technologies including surgical robots and image-guided surgery. This work has received international recognition including the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence in 2004. Professor Darzi was knighted by the Queen as a Knight Commander of the most excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) in December 2002.

The Role of Surgical Research.- Evidence-Based Surgery.- The Role of the Academic Surgeon in the Evaluation of Healthcare Assessment.- Study Design, Statistical Inference and Literature Search in Surgical Research.- Randomised Controlled Trials: What the Surgeon Needs to Know.- Monitoring Trial Effects.- How to Recruit Patients in Surgical Studies.- Diagnostic Tests and Diagnostic Accuracy in Surgery.- Research in Surgical Education: A Primer.- Measurement of Surgical Performance for Delivery of a Competency-Based Training Curriculum.- Health-Related Quality of Life and its Measurement in Surgery - Concepts and Methods.- Surgical Performance Under Stress: Conceptual and Methodological Issues.- How can we Assess Quality of Care in Surgery?.- Patient Satisfaction in Surgery.- How to Measure Inequality in Health Care Delivery.- The Role of Volume-Outcome Relationship in Surgery.- An Introduction to Animal Research.- The Ethics of Animal Research.- Ethical Issues in Surgical Research.- Principles and Methods in Qualitative Research.- Safety in Surgery.- Safety and Hazards in Surgical Research.- Fraud in Surgical Research - A Framework of Action Is Required.- A Framework Is Required to Reduce Publication Bias The Academic Surgeon's View.- Data Collection, Database Development and Quality Control: Guidance for Clinical Research Studies.- The Role of Computers and the Type of Computing Skills Required in Surgery.- Computational and Statistical Methodologies for Data Mining in Bioinformatics.- The Use of Bayesian Networks in Decision-Making.- A Bayesian Framework for Assessing New Surgical Health Technologies.- Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in Surgery.- Decision Analysis.- Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.- Value of Information Analysis.- Methodological Framework for Evaluation and Prevention of Publication Bias in Surgical Studies.- Graphs in Statistical Analysis.- Questionnaires, Surveys, Scales in Surgical Research: Concepts and Methodology.- How to Perform Analysis of Survival Data in Surgery.- Risk Stratification and Prediction Modelling in Surgery.- The Principles and Role of Medical Imaging in Surgery.- How to Read a Paper.- How to Evaluate the Quality of the Published Literature.- How to Write a Surgical Paper.- A Primer for Grant Applications.- Key Aspects of Grant Applications: The Surgical Viewpoint.- How to Organise an Educational Research Programme Within an Academic Surgical Unit.- How to Structure an Academic Lecture.- How to Write a Book Proposal.- How to Organise a Surgical Meeting: National and International.- Presentation Skills in Surgery.- Internet Research Resources for Surgeons.- Clinical Practice Guidelines in Surgery.- From Idea to Bedside: The Process of Surgical Invention and Innovation.- Research Governance and Research Funding in the USA: What the Academic Surgeon Needs to Know.- Research Governance in the UK: What the Academic Surgeon Needs to Know.- Research Funding, Applying for Grants and Research Budgeting in the UK: What the Academic Surgeon Needs to Know.- How to Enhance Development and Collaboration in Surgical Research.- Mentoring in Academic Surgery.- Leadership in Academic Surgery.- Using Skills from Art in Surgical Practice and Research-Surgery and Art.- Administration of the Academic Department of Surgery.- Information Transfer and Communication in Surgery: A Need for Improvement.- General Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Colorectal Cancer Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Urology: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Cardiothoracic Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Vascular Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Breast Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Thyroid Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Orthopaedic Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Neurosurgery: Current Trends and Recent Innovations.- Molecular Techniques in Surgical Research.- Molecular Carcinogenesis.