FUTURE SURGE RY
Key trends shaping surgery of the future
Changes in epidemiology and earlier diagnostics will shape the delivery of surgical services in the next 30 years. At the same time, the impacts of COVID-19 will be felt for some time. At Future Surgery 2022, leading experts discussed some of the challenges ahead and the potential changes required. Louise Frampton reports.
Taking place at London Excel, Future Surgery 2022 provided a showcase for innovation – including the latest in virtual reality simulation, demonstrations of pioneering surgical robots, revolutionary smart surgery glasses, state-of-the-art theatre imaging systems, and AI systems aimed at improving efficiency and surgical outcomes. Attracting thousands of surgeons, anaesthetists, perioperative practitioners, and surgical trainees from across the globe, Future Surgery 2022 offered hands-on opportunities for training in surgical techniques, as well as viewing of live demonstrations at the Association for British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) Surgical Simulation Theatre.
Future trends
The conference was opened by Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) of England, who highlighted the wide variety of hot topics to be discussed over the course of the two-day programme. High on the agenda were future trends in surgery, the recovery of elective surgery, and workforce challenges around recruitment and retention. Headlining the first day was Prof. Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England,
who gave an insight into the key factors set to influence surgery in the future. He pointed out that the last 170 years have seen the “most transformation for human health in history”. While surgery became safer, through the introduction of antisepsis and anaesthesia, demand for surgery has evolved as the population’s disease profile has changed over the years. At the start of the NHS, hospitals saw many patients with TB requiring surgery,
We are going to see accelerated ageing in semi-rural and peripheral areas, such as coastal areas. This means that surgery arising from age related diseases/conditions will increasingly need to be concentrated in these peripheral areas or we are going to have to find a way of ‘moving people around’. Professor Chris Whitty, CMO.
JANUARY 2023
but the disease epidemiology shifted, and cardiovascular disease overtook as the dominant health issue. Over time, there was a subsequent downward trend in cardiovascular disease mortality, due to a combination of factors – including the prescription of statins. So, what can we expect in terms of the drivers of change, in health and surgery, over the next 30 years? “There have been significant improvements in the medical risks that can lead to surgical problems, particularly around cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and there have been reductions in some of the drivers for cancer that require surgery – including HPV, Hep B/C, smoking and air pollution,” Prof. Whitty pointed out. “However, we can expect significant ‘headwinds’ in the form of obesity, the ‘backwash’ from COVID – which is going to be with us for a long time – as well as multimorbidity,” he warned. In particular, the age structure of the population will be very important, Prof. Whitty explained: “Everyone knows that the population is ageing, but the impact of this will be very different in different parts of
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