The 2015 ABC Travelling Fellows Australian Tour
Bill Donnelly, Piers Yates, David Little and Phong Tran
The ABC Travelling Fellowship is one of the most prestigious and long-standing fellowships for young orthopaedic surgeons worldwide. The fellowship was established in 1947 in the post war era in order for young orthopaedic surgeons from Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to travel to cross-pollinate orthopaedic knowledge, skills and research between leading centres in the western world. The original fellows (including Cecil Langton from Australia) sailed from South Hampton bound for the United States and Canada on the RMS Queen Elisabeth in May 1948 and for every year except four in the last 70 years a group of young orthopaedic surgeons, elected by their parent bodies, has travelled to other countries to experience and learn from their orthopaedic philosophies.
This year we were privileged to host the ABC Travelling Fellows through Australia for a period of one week. The fellows included: Assoc Prof Robert Brophy, Washington University; Assoc Prof Hue Luu, University of Chicago; Assoc Prof Sanjiv Kakar Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; Assoc Prof Kishore Mulpuri, University of British Columbia; Assoc Prof Alpesh Patel, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago; Dr Rajiv Gandhi, Toronto Western Hospital and Assoc Prof Sunken Shah, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
The Australian tour unfortunately was time constrained to one week and thus the fellows were limited to visiting three cities during this time, leaving for New Zealand completely exhausted. As you can see from the reports below, a huge amount of scientific, cultural and social activities were packed into their visits to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. AOA would especially like to thank Piers Yates, David Little and Phong Tran for organising and hosting such a successful tour, and thank the Branch Associations and the members from WA, NSW and VIC for their generous support of the 2015 Australian ABC Travelling Fellowship Tour.
Western Australia visit
By Piers Yates
The fellows arrived into Australia after a long flight on the afternoon of Monday 11 May. They were able to fit in a quick run by the setting sun, followed by a low-key dinner at Indiana’s tea house, Cottesloe.
There was an early 6.30am start at Barchetta, Cottesloe, where they were then picked up by their hosts for the morning. Robert Brophy spent the morning with Perth Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Clinic, discussing difficult cases. Greg Janes hosted. Rajiv Gandhi began the morning with Dermot Collopy and Gavin Clark at St Johns Subiaco, experiencing the wonders of the new robot. He was then delivered to St Johns Murdoch to attend theatre with myself, and offer his views on a case of pelvic discontinuity, blood management, pain management, and ERAS advances.
Sanjiv Kakar attended theatre at St John’s Murdoch with Allan Wang, with a busy upper limb list. Hue Luu met up with Richard Carey-Smith and David Wood at Hollywood Hospital, where oncology topics were discussed. Kishore Mulpuri stimulated the paediatric department with a discussion at Princess Margaret Hospital, hosted by Kate Stannage. Alpesh Patel experienced the first of a new spinal procedure with Paul Taylor at the Mount Hospital. Suken Shah spent the day at the spinal unit at Royal Perth Hospital with Peter Woodland and Dave Dillon.
After lunch, the fellows met up at North Cottesloe Lifesaving Club for an all-Aussie surf boat training event. After being issued with appropriate budgy smugglers, the fellows soon had mastered an effective stroke. The weather was glorious.
We reconvened at the new Fiona Stanley Hospital for the academic sessions, where the fellows presented, plus there were three local presentations. The standard was excellent and the turnout from the local WA orthopaedic community was impressive.
Dinner was at Boatshed Restaurant overlooking the Swan River and the city night-time skyline followed. Gifts were exchanged, and conversation regarding leadership, advancing orthopaedics and research were discussed.
Unfortunately, it was then time to leave for Sydney on the “red eye”. It was 36 hours that made a significant impression on WA orthopaedics, and hopefully the North American ABC fellows too.
WA orthopaedics was enriched and inspired by these young fellows’ visit. We hope that they found their first experience of Australia memorable and rewarding.
Sydney visit
By David Little
We received the ABC fellows on Wednesday 13 May a bit bleary-eyed after the overnight flight from Perth, so to keep them going we attacked the BridgeClimb. A couple of the fellows were scared of heights, but I convinced them that as it was upside down it wasn’t the same.
That evening we had an informal dinner at Darling Harbour, joined by Bruce Foster (1988 ABC Fellow) from Adelaide, who wanted to meet the fellows despite them missing Adelaide this year.
The next day, Thursday 14 May, we held a scientific session at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. The fellows presented the latest developments in distal radial fracture fixation, work on bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and stem cells, and covered important topics of systematic reviews and patient-reported outcomes. There were paediatric talks on spinal deformities and Perthes.
We presented to them the Sydney experience in extracorporeal irradiation for limb salvage reconstruction, basic science talks on BMPs and bisphosphonates, a talk on 3D printing, and finally our experience on femoral head monitoring in surgical dislocation for Slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE).
All the talks were well received and prompted lively debate. Brett Courtenay (ABC Fellow 1990) was able to attend the session, but was unfortunately unable to make the dinner due to an interstate commitment.
That evening we had a more formal dinner at Royal Sydney Gold Club hosted by Bill Bates (ABC Fellow 1972), and attended mostly by consultants from the scientific session in the morning. Tim Musgrove, chairman of the NSW State Branch, kindly attended and sponsored the dinner.
The 48-hour trip was up first thing next morning as the fellows departed for Melbourne.
Melbourne visit
By Phong Tran
The last stop on the fellows’ Australian visit was Melbourne, which began with a scientific session at the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. This was very well attended by the Victorian members with the fellows presenting on both basic science and clinical outcome studies.
Impressive local research was presented by Gerald Quan, Alasdair Sutherland, Kerr Graham, Minoo Patel and David Ackland. The fellows received their ABC certificates and were gifted with leather AFL footballs, which they will hopefully proudly mount in their offices as a memento of their fellowship travels to Australia.
A cocktail reception was then held with spectacular views over the Melbourne skyline. This was a wonderful opportunity for the travelling fellows to mingle with the local orthopaedic community, with over 70 members and trainees attending the event.
Saturday morning was spent wandering the laneways of Melbourne and drinking coffee, before walking along the Yarra to the MCG to enjoy the cultural highlight of AFL football, with the fellows being treated to an entertaining game between Melbourne and Hawthorn. That evening, an Australian-themed ABC dinner was held showcasing local cuisine and wines.
The Victorian past ABCs (Jonathan Rush – 1978, Kerr Graham UK – 1992, Richard DeSteiger – 1998, Alasdair Sutherland UK – 2008, Phong Tran – 2014) would like to sincerely thank the Victorian executive for their wonderful support of the ABC visit and the warm hospitality shown by the Victorian membership.