Collaboration is key: working together to improve standards in surgical practice

The traditionally trained UK plastic surgeon has pluripotent stem cell qualities. Their acquired skill set can be transformed to benefit to patient care in most spheres of sub-specialisation. Co-operation with colleagues from these disciplines is crucial to facilitate continued improvement in patient care. Ultimately, the benefit of this approach can only be judged by illustrating improved quality outcome, which we should all strive to measure.

Breast surgery is a typical example of this phenomenon. Breast surgeons have a huge interest in the role reconstructive surgery has in improving the outcome of their patients. Testament to this is the competition for inter-specialty fellowships. The Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) and BAPRAS have fostered this enthusiasm and I have had the pleasure to be invited to join the faculty for courses at the Royal College of Surgeons, ABS annual conferences, Glasgow ABS Trainees meeting and most recently the MS in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery.

Hopefully, by illustrating some techniques and perspectives on reconstructive issues, an exchange of ideas is stimulated and the surgical care of breast cancer will continue to evolve. Indeed, the upsurge in therapeutic mammoplasty, sometimes combined with primary chemotherapy, is a great example of this approach.

The diversity of surgical skills required to treat breast patients from stereotactic percutaneous resections to perforator based free tissue transfer, mean that the ‘oncoplastic’ breast surgery is a team not an individuals’ specialty. Continued co-operation between BAPRAS and ABS will achieve the goal of the right surgeon(s), performing the right operation, on the right patient, at the right time.

John Scott
BAPRAS Full Member