The British Transplantation Society held its 15th Annual Congress in Glasgow, from 22 to 24 February

 Four hundred and thirty one registrants representing the society’s constituencies (surgeons, transplant physicians, coordinators and transplant nurses, immunologists and scientists) attended a stimulating and highly educational meeting.

A pre-congress symposium on how to plan good medical research allowed younger members of the society to explore the fundamentals of laboratory and clinical research, grant applications and clinical trial design.

The first combined meeting of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and ENT UK was held on 6 September at the Royal College of Surgeons of England

A combined meeting between maxillofacial surgery and ENT surgery was long overdue given the significant overlap between the two specialties.

The event’s keynote speaker, Professor Maura Gillison, from Ohio State University, discussed “the clinical implications of a diagnosis of HPV16 positive head and neck cancer”.  It has become apparent that this disease is a new variant of squamous cancer, affecting a younger age group, due to a different aetiology and risk behaviour and responding to treatment in a different way. Professor Gillison gave a highly informed lecture, clarifying many aspects of this emerging disease and raising highly pertinent questions as to how it should be managed, both from a public health and treatment point of view. 

A joint meeting of the British and Irish Orthopaedic Associations took place at the Convention Centre, Dublin, from 13 to 16 September

The nature of this meeting has changed over the years from one in which free papers were the principal component and were complemented by plenary lectures. Currently, each of the 20 specialist societies runs separate sessions which include free papers and invited lectures. This year, the overarching theme of the meeting was ‘training, education and revalidation’.

Atif Malik and Izzy Ahad report from the 22nd Annual Clinical Meeting of the British Trauma Society, held in the Midland Hotel, Manchester, 4-6 May

This year’s British Trauma Society meeting drew delegates from around the world, with presenters ranging from America to China. Highlights included oral presentation sessions on upper and lower limb; given the recent debate and political interest in these injuries, there was a particular focus on proximal femoral fractures.