SURGIA Newsletter: General Surgery Edition Volume II Issue 1 | Page 20

CONFERENCE REPORT

ASSC SURGICAL
CONFERENCE
by Ahmed Mahmoud, ASSC Co-Convenor and SURGIA Treasurer

T

he
Australasian
Students’
Surgical
Conference (ASSC) is an annual student-led
conference, created, organised and attended
by medical students across Australian and
New Zealand universities, focusing on surgical
education, inspiration and promotion of surgery
as a discipline. This year, the ASSC was convened
by Mr Ahmed Mahmoud and Dr Tony Cheng
at Brisbane between Friday the 29th April and
Sunday the 1st May, 2016.
The 2016 Australasian Student Surgical Conference
(ASSC) was the largest and most successful
conference for students interested in surgery
yet! The conference offered plenary sessions
from international, interstate and local leading
surgeons. The Careers night was held at the
Hilton Hotel with thirty specialists attending from
the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Additionally,
the conference involved an unprecedented
fourteen different skills sessions over two days
from perineal repairs, bowel anastomosis, virtual
reality surgery and laparoscopy to name a few.
Students had the opportunity to learn and
practice clinical skills that are not usually included
in the medical curriculum and which are vital to a
career in surgery.

17 | SURGIA Newsletter The General Surgery Edition

Medical students from Griffith University,
University of Queensland and Bond University
teamed up to create a remarkable conference.
The Facebook event of the conference reached an
impressive seventy thousand individuals. Positive
feedback and encouragement was received from
the conference delegates, speakers and doctors
leading the skills sessions.
The conference also saw the birth of the
Australasian Student Surgical Association (ASSA)
which is an initiative to connect all the student
surgical societies from Australia and New Zealand.
The association will set a base for collaboration
and information sharing to strengthen surgical
societies. Griffith University representatives, Erick
Chan and Ahmed Mahmoud, were selected as
President and Vice President respectively of the
organisation. This is a huge sign of the continuing
success of Griffith Student Surgical Association
(SURGIA).
The ASSC will be held in Adelaide for 2017 and will
build on the success of this year with support from
the Australasian Student Surgical Association. We
look forward to seeing you there to share our love
for the wonderful Art of surgery.