From Ian Pearce - President of BAUS
"... celebrating the 80th birthday of BAUS ..."
I am both delighted and honoured to be able to welcome you to this year’s BAUS Annual Scientific Meeting here in Manchester.
This is an incredibly special year for our association as we celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the founding of BAUS. There will be plenty to mark this auspicious occasion, including a celebratory BAUS dinner at the iconic 20 Stories venue in central Manchester. Please do book your tickets early and join us in celebrating everything that makes BAUS what it is today, what it was yesterday, and of course what it will be tomorrow.
This year’s meeting will eclipse even last year’s which, by all metrics, was the most successful in our history. With over 600 abstracts submitted, and an acceptance rate of almost 40%, the quality of the scientific offering is simply outstanding. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work for consideration and a massive thank you to all of the abstract markers who willingly gave up their time, energy and expertise to ensure that the process was fair, swift and robust.
With over 75 hours of educational content and 17 educational courses, drawing everyone’s attention to each session becomes impossible of course. However, to suggest we have more than a few highlights would be under-selling in the extreme! To kick us off in style on Monday, and to ensure a tsunami of discussion, our first session will focus on prostate cancer screening. This is always a topical subject, perhaps even more so given the very significant media attention this has enjoyed over the past 12 months, including an All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting in February. Come, listen and contribute to the debate, the challenges and the expert perspectives.
This session is immediately followed by the BAUS guest lecture, and I’m delighted that we will be able to welcome the Academy award-winning director Sir Steve McQueen CBE who will be sharing his prostate cancer journey and hopes for the future. This is absolutely not to be missed!
On Tuesday we are privileged to be able to welcome The Rt Hon Lord Ara Darzi of Denham OM KBE, who has very kindly agreed to deliver the BAUS & JCU Guest Lecture, “Rebuilding the NHS and Targeting Health Inequalities”. Again I think this is one of those lectures that all of us have something to gain and learn from, and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in the audience.
Wednesday morning plays host to the Widening Participation session with talks addressing the fairness of the intercollegiate exam, differential attainment and overcoming unconscious bias, the latter being given by Peaches Golding OBE, CStJ His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for The County and City of Bristol. I know this will be an outstanding session all round with lots of food for thought for all of us. This is followed in the afternoon by the BAUS-IBUS session on global training with views and perspectives from across the world including India and Africa, and then, finally, with the best of BAUS providing the traditional close to our conference.
Successive Presidents would all agree that one of the most enjoyable aspects of being BAUS Presidents is the opportunity to recognise the outstanding talent that exists within British Urology and beyond. It will be my immense privilege to be able to give the BAUS medals and awards to this year’s recipients, all of whom are truly worthy of every plaudit. I offer my most sincere congratulations to Hassan Abol-Enein, Suks Minas, Gurpreet Singh, Jim Adshead, Bhavan Rai and Russell Etherington for their undeniable contribution to British Urology. Please do join me in celebrating their achievements at the award ceremony.
We will of course also be awarding the BAUS Legacy Medal to its first recipient. This medal has been cast in honour of the 80th anniversary of BAUS and seeks to celebrate and commemorate an individual’s contribution and legacy to our specialist association.
Steve Payne, Mark Speakman and Kieran O’Flynn will all receive honorary BAUS membership in recognition of their unparalleled service to BAUS. It will be a huge personal privilege to bestow this on these three giants of urology upon whose shoulders so many of us stand today.
My final thanks of course to those colleagues that have made this conference what it is and without whom the meeting simply would not happen. The events team at BAUS, headed up by Harry Heald with Chloe Austin and Ellie Pakes, have been characteristically amazing at all times, patient, organised and encouraging. On behalf of all of us, a massive thank you!
Mo Belal, the Deputy VP for Education has revitalised the educational courses offered and I can guarantee participants will not be disappointed, and finally Joe Philip. In Joe’s last year as VP Education, he has spear-headed the delivery of a magnificent meeting of the highest scientific and social calibre. An event we will all be proud of as BAUS members, and one for which I know we are all endlessly grateful.
Manchester is one of the most vibrant cities in the country and to be able to host our annual meeting here after an absence of 10 years is something we are all massively excited about. Whether your extracurricular interests lie in the arts, theatre, cinema, science, dining or sport, you will be more than catered for in Manchester and, of course, there is ample opportunity for outdoor pursuits only a stone’s throw away from the city centre.
I look forward to welcoming you all to our annual meeting here in Manchester, at the height of summer - don't forget to bring a brolly!
