The Bristol Surgical Trials Centre, based at the University of Bristol, aims to enable surgeons to learn more about how to deal with a range of conditions, assess new surgical techniques and discover surgical breakthroughs. It designs and delivers studies to evaluate new operations, and answer research questions that are important to patients and the NHS.

Surgeons, surgical trainees, methodologists and healthcare professionals involved in running clinical trials will gather at the launch event at the Mshed, Bristol, to share successes in ongoing randomised trials and discuss ways to improve quality and increase the number of surgical trials carried out.

The morning session will feature speakers Professor Freddie Hamdy, Nuffield Professor of Surgery, University of Oxford; Professor Dion Morton, Director of Clinical Research, Royal College of Surgeons of England; Professor Matt Costa, Professor of Trauma & Orthopaedics, University of Warwick; and Deborah Evans, Managing Director of the West of England Academic Health Science Network.

The event will be chaired by the centre’s Director, Jane Blazeby, Professor of Surgery at the University of Bristol and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust; and Bristol academics Ashley Blom, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Jenny Donovan, Professor of Social Medicine, and Dr Chris Rogers, Reader in Medical Statistics.

Participants are invited to pitch trial ideas in a Dragons’ Den-style presentation in the afternoon, which will be followed by an opportunity to discuss research proposals with experts and meet other delegates.

Further details about the launch are available from the Centre website.