The appointment
Dr Kenneth Cutbush was elected Scientific Secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Orthopaedic Association at its annual general meeting. The term runs for two years from September 2015.
The role includes running the weekly lecture programme for orthopaedic trainees and organising the branch's annual scientific meeting. The trainee lecture programme is the formal teaching that runs alongside the clinical work registrars do, and it covers the curriculum they are examined on.
How orthopaedic training works in Australia
A doctor who wants to become an orthopaedic surgeon completes a medical degree, then works in hospital posts for some years before applying for selection into the orthopaedic training programme. Selection is competitive. Those accepted spend several years rotating through accredited hospital posts as registrars, under the supervision of consultant surgeons, and are assessed continuously through logbooks, workplace assessments and examinations. On completing training and passing the final examination they become Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and many then undertake a further subspecialty fellowship in an area such as shoulder surgery before taking up a consultant appointment.
What the weekly lecture programme covers
Clinical work teaches registrars what happens to arrive at the hospital, in whatever order it arrives. The lecture programme exists to cover the curriculum systematically instead: anatomy, biomechanics, pathology, the interpretation of imaging, and the assessment and management of each region of the body and each category of injury. It is delivered by consultant surgeons in rotation, and registrars present cases and are questioned on them. Because the same examinations are sat nationally, a branch programme has to cover the whole syllabus whether or not the local caseload happens to include it.
What the branch scientific meeting does
The annual scientific meeting is where the orthopaedic surgeons of the state gather to present work and hear invited speakers. Registrars and fellows present research alongside consultants, and for many of them it is the first occasion on which they put their own work in front of an audience that will question the method and the conclusions. Organising it means assembling a programme, reviewing the submitted abstracts, arranging speakers and running the meeting itself, all alongside a clinical practice.