A celebration of surgical research and innovation was recently held with the combined presentation of the Harry Cumberland Travelling Scholarship and the inaugural Ray Hollings Surgical Excellence Award.

Both awards have been established through generous philanthropic donations from the surgeons they are named after. They will be offered annually to provide support for research, innovation and quality improvement.

The event was jointly hosted by the Surgical Education Research & Training (SERT) Institute and the RNSH Department of Gastroenterology. 

NSLHD Chief Executive Deb Willcox acknowledged the significant contribution both Dr Cumberland and Dr Hollings made throughout their extensive surgical careers across the Northern Sydney Local Health District, and appreciation for their ongoing support and generosity to enable these prestigious awards.  

Dr Bill Cumberland, son of the late Dr Harry Cumberland, and his wife Genevieve were in attendance to present the Travelling Scholarship while Dr Ray Hollings, wife Beverly and family joined online. 

Dr Geoffrey Wong was the recipient of the Cumberland Travelling Scholarship for his study titled “Early recurrence after resection of colorectal liver metastases, clinical data to proteomic biomarker discovery.” This work was under the supervision of Professor Tom Hugh,

Dr Krishna Kotecha was runner-up finalist for his study titled - Propensity score analysis on pancreatoduodenectomy patients following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This work was under the supervision of Clinical Professor Jas Samra and Clinical Associate Professor Anubhav Mittal.

There were two recipients for the Ray Hollings award: Dr Michael Symes (pictured above) for the Spinal and Orthopaedic Research Epidemiology Database project, and Dr David Marshman for the peri-operative blood product usage in cardiothoracic surgery project.