Presenters 

Prof David Watters

David Watters has been appointed to the role of Director of Surgery at SCV to lead the Perioperative Learning Health Network within the Centre of Clinical Excellence.

He is committed to improving perioperative care before, during and after surgery and working with all the disciplines involved across the whole patient journey. He was Chair of the inaugural Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council (2019-2022) and will continue to support the VPCC in his new role.

He is a Past President of RACS (2015-2016) who, since 2000, has been Professor of Surgery for Barwon Health at the University Hospital Geelong, initially with the University of Melbourne (2000-2010), and then Deakin University (2011-). He is a general surgeon with interests in general, colorectal and endocrine surgery and is actively engaged in advocating for global surgery, having spent almost 20 years in developing countries including Papua New Guinea (Professor of Surgery 1992-2000), Hong Kong (1991), Zambia (1985-90) and South Africa (1982-84).

He is an Edinburgh University graduate, and in addition to the FRACS, a fellow of the Edinburgh, Hong Kong, and East Central and Southern Africa Colleges of Surgeons, a Life Member of the Medical Society of Papua New Guinea (2017) and Honorary Member of the Asian Surgical Association (2015).

His research interests include surgical audit and performance, surgical outcomes, perioperative mortality, surgical history and global health. He has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and he has published six books, four on clinical care and two on surgical history: Stitches in Time - Two centuries of Surgery in Papua New Guinea (Xlibris, 2012) and Anzac Surgeons of Gallipoli (RACS 2015).

In recognition of his contribution to surgery and surgical training in PNG, he was awarded the OBE (2012). Within the Order of Australia, he was awarded the AM for “significant service to Medicine and Medical Education and Leadership Roles with Professional Organisations” (2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours). Deakin University appointed him the title of Alfred Deakin Professor in August 2016. He is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow (Port Moresby 2000), on the Editorial Board for the World Journal of Surgery and a Senior Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery.

Prof Spencer Beasley

Spencer is a Professor of Paediatric Surgery and the Clinical Director of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Christchurch Hospital and Clinical Lead, department of Paediatric Surgery, Wellington Hospital. Until 1996, he was a consultant paediatric surgeon and paediatric urologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Senior lecturer at Melbourne University.

He was a founding member of the Child Cancer and the Developmental Genetics Research Group, and was a board member of the Rainbow Children’s Trust. He is a current trustee of the Children’s Cancer Research Trust (Canterbury). He has developed a regional service for paediatric surgery throughout the South Island, providing outreach regular clinics and operating sessions in every South Island public hospital and 5 hospitals in the North Island. He is a member of the Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) taskforce for paediatric surgery.

His clinical research has involved development of measures of outcome in paediatric surgery, gender equity, and the effect of configuration of surgical services on clinical outcomes.

He is the former Vice-President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Chairman of the Governance and Advocacy Committee, Chairman of the Board of Surgical Education and Training, Chair Professional Development, Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Chair of the Court of Examiners of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Also, he is a former New Zealand Censor, Chair of the Board of Paediatric Surgery and Senior Examiner in Paediatric Surgery RACS. He is the Surgical Advisor Aotearoa to RACS.

He is a previous president of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons (now known as the Australia and New Zealand Association of Paediatric Surgeons) and former President of the Aotearoa New Zealand Society of Paediatric Surgeons. He is a member of the Board of Governors and President-Elect of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons. He was on the Male Champions of Change STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) group, working towards removing the impediments to gender equity, perhaps with a vested interest as he has 6 daughters.

He recently retired as the specialty editor for Paediatric Surgery of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery and Senior Editor of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. He has written or edited nine textbooks on paediatric surgery and related. He is currently editing the Oxford University Press textbook on Paediatric Surgery. He was awarded a ONZM in 2018.