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At the British Association of Urological Surgeon (BAUS) Annual Meeting, held in Manchester from 15 to 18 June, final year undergraduate medical student Joel Ward was awarded the BAUS 2015 Medical Student Essay prize. Also during the meeting, Clinical Lecturer in Urology Dr Richard Bryant received the Best Academic Paper award.

Joel (left) is pictured receiving his award from Mr Ian Pearce at the BAUS 2015 Annual Meeting
Joel (left) is pictured receiving his award from Mr Ian Pearce at the BAUS 2015 Annual Meeting

Medical students were invited to submit a 1500-word essay about the current and potential use of social media in surgical training, particularly within urology. The author of the essay judged to be the most outstanding in each medical school received a prize of £100 and was entered into the national competition. The authors of the two best essays nationally received a prize of guest registration for, and a grant towards the cost of attending, the BAUS 2015 Annual Meeting where they were presented with a certificate of merit.

The essay competition was entitled ‘Social media in urological teaching & training: a new era or passing fad?’ Joel’s winning essay entitled ‘#Urology: A Systematic Review and Commentary’ is to be published in the Journal of Clinical Urology.

Commenting on his success, Joel said: ‘I am delighted to have achieved first place in this national competition. Writing the essay helped fuel my passion for surgery in which I hope to pursue a career. I received great input from the Oxford Urology team and would highly recommend anyone who is interested in Urology to contact them.’

The Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences (NDS) in the John Radcliffe Hospital is responsible for the delivery and development of surgical training for 4th and 6th year medical students. To find out more visit the Surgical Education pages on the NDS website.

Best Academic Paper award

Congratulations also go to Dr Richard Bryant who was the winner of the BAUS 2015 Best Academic Paper prize for his talk entitled 'Altered expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) proteins in extraprostatic prostate cancer'. Dr Bryant is a Clinical Lecturer in Urology in the NDS, based at the Churchill Hospital, and CRUK Surgical Oncology Fellow at the Oxford Cancer Research Centre.