2014 Project Newsletter and Overview: Year 3 2014 has been another busy year in the project. We started by welcoming A/Prof Bernadette Richards from the University of Adelaide onto the project as a CI with expertise in health law, and a special interest in consent. Bernadette will lead on legal issues for the project. The main focus of our work this year has been the qualitative study at West Sydney Local Health District, where Katrina Hutchison has interviewed 22 clinicians, managers and nurses about their views on surgical innovation. Katrina’s research questions focus on the definition of innovative surgery and how it is recognized and managed, the kinds of ethical questions that it raises, and issues around patient information and consent. The data are currently being analysed by Katrina and Swantje Lorrimer-Mohr, and we plan to publish our results over the next twelve months. Preliminary results were presented at a workshop at the Australian Association of Bioethics conference in Perth, and at our own workshop on consent. Our main event for the year was a workshop on Consent to Surgical Innovations, held at Macquarie University. The workshop included presentations on participants’ views about consent from our qualitative research (Katrina Hutchison and Swantje Lorrimer-Mohr), practical issues in seeking patient consent (Prof Henry Pleass, Westmead) and legal viewpoints on consent to innovative procedures (A/Prof Bernadette Richards). Dr Kim Hill (Westmead) and Ms Blaise Lyons (Principal Legal Officer, NSW Health) provided commentaries. The workshop was well attended by individuals from academia, the Ministry of Health and practitioners, leading to productive discussions. In August we hosted a workshop with Prof Robert Frodeman (University of North Texas). Bob is an expert in ‘philosophy in the field’, which is a way of doing philosophy grounded in practical projects and problems arising from the ‘real’ world. Our project very much fits this model as the challenge of supporting responsible innovation is a practical one facing health services around the world. In September, Katrina and Wendy Rogers were invited to present our tool to identify surgical innovation at a clinical risk seminar for directors of clinical governance. The tool is based upon our definition of innovative surgery and provides a simple way of identifying when a procedure is innovative and so trigger appropriate supports. We received very positive feedback with 85% of participants noting that our session met their learning needs: “I really enjoyed learning about innovation and the screening tool” Finally, our project was “Highly commended” in the 2014 Mq research excellence awards for Humanities and Social Science research, and Wendy Rogers won the inaugural Faculty of Arts award for Research Leadership and Mentoring for her role in the project. 2014 Activities and Outcomes Publications Hutchison K and Rogers W. ‘Ethical considerations in military surgical innovation’ in Super Soldiers: The Ethical, Legal and Social Implications eds Jai Galliott & Mianna Lotz, Ashgate (forthcoming: contracted 15/10/2013). Johnson J and Rogers W. Joint issues – conflicts of interest and the ASR hip. BMC Medical Ethics 2014; 15: 63. Myerson D. Is there a right to access innovative surgery? Bioethics (Article first published online: 3 SEP 2014: DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12111) Rogers W, Lotz M, Hutchison K, Pourmoslemi A, Eyers A. Identifying surgical innovation: A qualitative study of surgeons’ views, Annals of Surgery 2014; 259 (2): 273-8. What is surgical innovation?: A qualitative study of surgeons’ views. Blog on IDEAL Collaboration website (7 Feb 2014): http://www.ideal-collaboration.net/2014/02/what-is-surgical-innovation-a-qualitative- study-of-surgeons-views/ Non-financial conflicts of interest and surgical innovation. Blog on IDEAL Collaboration website (25 Feb 2014): http://www.ideal-collaboration.net/2014/02/non-financial-conflicts-of-interest-and-surgical- innovation/ We have further papers under review/in preparation on the innovation identification tool, regulation of innovation, justice and the Da Vinci robot, and consent. Presentations Rogers WA and Richards B, ‘Safer Surgical Innovation’. 23rd Annual Medico-legal Congress, Sydney, 27 March 2014. Johnson J. ‘The vexing nature of conflicts of interest in surgery - the case of the ASR hip’, Australian Catholic University Philosophy Research Seminar Series, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney. June 2014. Tock R. ‘Accounting for Illness in the Medical Encounter – a tailored account of autonomy’, 12th World Congress of Bioethics. Mexico City, Mexico. June 2014. Rogers WA.’ Challenges in identifying innovation and potential ways forward’, Medical Grand Round, St George Hospital, Sydney, 3 July 2014. Hutchison K, Johnson J and Carter D. ‘Social justice and surgical innovation: the case of the Da Vinci robot’, Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference. Australian National University, Canberra. July 2014. (Presented by K. Hutchison.) Hutchison K, and Rogers WA. ’An ARC Linkage on surgical innovation – field philosophy at work?’ Ethics in the Field Workshop. CAVE, Macquarie University, Sydney. August 2014. Rogers W and Hutchison K. ’Supporting safer introduction of innovative surgery. Clinical Risk Seminar, (TMF/ GIO), Sydney 11 September 2014. Meyerson, D. 'Access to Surgical Innovations: A Rights-based Perspective', Greek Legal and Medical Conference, Costa Navarino, 19-25 September 2014. Hutchison K, Eyers T, Richards B, and Thomson C. ‘Whose responsibility? The challenge of regulating innovative surgical procedures. (workshop), Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law Conference. Perth, October 2014. Hutchison K, Lorrimer-Mohr S. ‘Health professionals’ views on consent to innovative surgery’. Consent to Surgical Innovations workshop Macquarie University October 31st 2014 Johnson J. ‘The problem of conflicts of interest in surgery'. CAPPE Seminar Series, ANU Canberra, 5th November 2014. Johnson J. 'The problem of conflicts of interest in surgery'. Health Services Research Unit, Aberdeen, UK, November 24th 2014. Hutchison K. ‘On the Cutting Edge – practical issues in responsible and ethical surgical innovation’. Inaugural Malaysia International Healthcare Innovation Conference and Exhibition (MIHICE), December 8th 2014, Kuala Lumpur (invited keynote). For further details on our work, or for copies of papers, please contact [email protected] .