The Malcolm Coptcoat Lecture
Annual British Association of Urological Surgeons Malcolm Coptcoat lecture where the Endourology Section invites a leading urologist as guest lecturer to their meeting [https://www.baus.org.uk/professionals/sections/endourology/prizes/]
BEST SHORT PAPER AWARD
An award at the Royal Society of Medicine Urology Section Spring Meeting for the best Short Paper allowing the winner to travel to the Autumn Meeting abroad to present their paper, as well as the Spring Meeting Coptcoat lecture
Winners
Example of Fellowship funded by the Coptcoat Trust – Clinical Fellowship at the Department of Urology, Institut Montsouris, University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, 2001
Six months clinical practice in the OR as assistant, publication of several papers on oncologic laparascopic surgery.
Program of research on robotics of laparascopic prostate cancer surgery, including modelisation of a prostate inside the pelvis and the simulation of all the steps of the operation
Clinical Fellowship with Georges Fournier, Brest
Six months Fellowship with Georges Fournier, Brest learning laparascopic Prostatectomy, 2005
I will forever be very grateful to the kindness of The Malcolm Coptcoat Trust for granting me a fellowship to help me spend 6 months in Brest, France, with Professor Fournier learning laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. At that time this procedure was relatively new in the UK and as such it was difficult to get suitable training and therefore this necessitated my reason for travelling to France.
My basic knowledge of French meant that I could not undertake a paid post and therefore it would not have been possible for me to spend 6 months there without some financial support which the Malcolm Coptcoat Trust very kindly offered me.
As a result of 6 months in France, I was able to obtain a post in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, having been specifically appointed to carry out this procedure. I have now carried out over 500 cases and will ever be grateful to the late Malcolm Coptcoat and his wife Alice, who runs the Trust for their kind support.
Yours sincerely
Mr John Donohue FRCSI FRCS (Urol)
Consultant Urological Surgeon
This year’s BSc projects have already won prizes at the ESAU meeting in Turkey, May 2017
Winning projects: Radical orchidectomy and fertility preservation: a need to change practice by Jemma Moody and A morphometric MRI – histology 3D reconstruction study to determine the spatial distribution of prostate ductal cancer in patients who underwent radical prostatectomy by Tim Harkin.
Example of King’s, Guy’s Thomas’ BSc project funded by the Coptcoat Trust – Study of Prostate ductal adenocarcinoma 2016
Prostate Ductal adenocarcinoma is a rare form of prostate cancer that only affects 10 in every 200 patients with prostate cancer. However, it may be more severe than the usual type of prostate cancer type with frequent spread and relapse after treatment.
At Guy’s hospital and in the last ten years, more than 7500 patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 147 of which had ductal type. Of this group we selected patients who had surgery for their disease and compared their outcome with similar group from the usual prostate cancer type. We found that patients with ductal prostate cancer were more likely to have members of their family diagnosed with prostate cancer. After surgery more patients with ductal cancer required additional treatment in the form of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. And after many years of follow up, patients with ductal cancer were more likely to have relapse of their cancer. Therefore, we concluded that prostate ductal cancer is more aggressive disease compared to the common type of prostate cancer and it can run in families.
[link to PowerPoint presentation]
Another example of King’s, Guy’s Thomas’ BSc project funded by the Trust-Robot-assisted Training – Expert Performance in Full Immersion Simulation, Setting the Benchmark (Concurrent Validity) 2016
My project involved creating a standard for trainees in robotic surgery. There has been a big drive recently towards teaching surgical procedures through simulation. The traditional method in the operating theatre environment can put patient safety at risk if the surgeon is not competent to be performing the task. Therefore, setting a benchmark that trainees need to achieve in simulation can help to improve patient safety. They can then go on the perform the procedure on a real patient once they are competent to do so.
Setting this benchmark involved taking a number of expert and intermediate robotic surgeons and assessing them whilst performing a stitching task inside an inflatable mock operating theatre, known as the igloo. The surgeons were scored on their technical and non-technical skills through video recordings, which were sent off to an international robotic surgery expert. Their scores were then compared to those of a group of novices, who carried out the same surgical task using the robot, to evaluate whether there was a distinctive difference in scores between the groups.
Results found a significant difference between the experts, intermediate and novice surgeons, meaning that the mean scores of the experts were suitable to derive a benchmark for the task.
In addition, we found no difference in non-technical skills between scores of the expert robotic surgeons and expert laparoscopic (keyhole) surgeons. This has implications for future work, as there may be a role for transferring previously acquired skills in other areas of surgery to robotics.
The project has so far been presented at the Richard Tiptaft Visiting Symposium in London, European Robotic Urology Section in Milan and the World Congress of Endourology in Cape Town. It has also been published as an abstract in the Journal of Endourology Supplements and European Urology Supplements.
Robot-Assisted Training – Expert Performance in Full Immersion Simulation, Setting the Benchmark (Concurrent Validity) (Cape Town)
Robot-Assisted Training – Expert Performance in Full Immersion Simulation, Setting the Benchmark (Concurrent Validity) (Milan)
34th World Congress of Endourology – Illuminating the Future of Endourology (Cape Town 2016)
The use of Google GLASS in Surgery and Effect on Performance
The Effectiveness of Google GLASS as a Vital Signs Monitor in Surgery
Testicular Cancer and Infertility: Predicting Spermatogenesis
Beijing Urological Simulation Olympics
Funding for two King’s trainees to go and compete at the Beijing Urological Simulation Olympics – in 2016 they obtained Silver and Bronze medals
