RANZCOG 2019 ASM Overview

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting (RANZCOG 2019 ASM) was held in Melbourne, Victoria at the recently opened expansion wing of the Melbourne Convention Centre between 13 and 16 October 2019.

The meeting was attended by 1290 delegates.

This year’s theme ‘Stop. Start. Continue.’ provided an opportunity to pause and reflect. The meeting organising committee chose the theme ‘Stop. Start. Continue.’ as a galvanising call to action for the specialty. Taken from the world of business management, a “Stop. Start. Continue” analysis can be a simple yet powerful tool for looking at service improvement. It can also be used as a technique for generating ideas, solving problems and negotiating behaviour changes between groups, individuals or departments.

The organising committee invited keynote speakers Professor Basky Thilaganathan, Dr Ranee Thakar, Associate Professor Sawsan As-Sanie and Professor William Grobman to reflect on their own area of expertise and what O&G clinicians should stop, start and continue doing in order to deliver the best outcomes. What ineffective practices should we abandon? What new initiatives should we start? And, most importantly what are we doing right that we should continue to perfect as our specialty evolves?

The program included three interactive How-To sessions on Breech Delivery and three interactive How-to sessions on Cystoscopy on Monday and Tuesday of the ASM. These were extremely popular sessions with the delegates and were fully prescribed each day.

New Fellows and Awards

The New Fellows & Awards Presentation Ceremony and Reception was held at the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne on Sunday 13 October 2019. 105 newly elevated Fellows and recently certified subspecialists were presented to the Fellowship during the Presentation Ceremony. They were be joined by an additional 455 delegates and guests, including family and friends.

During the Presentation Ceremony
the following awards and medals were also presented:

Outstanding Achievement in the
DRANZCOG Advanced Oral Examination:

Dr Danielle Crosby

April 2019

Dr Stephen Tucker

April 2019

Dr Susanna Hoffman

September 2019

Outstanding Achievement in the
FRANZCOG Oral Examination:

Dr Marina Demyanenko

October 2019

Dr Sarah Jane Te Whaiti

May 2019

Honorary Fellowship

Dr Thomas Gellhaus

Prof Lesley Regan

FREE COMMUNICATIONS, Static Posters and ePosters

A total of 341 abstracts were received for consideration for Free Communication (oral presentation), Platform Poster and/or ePoster presentation. Abstracts were assessed by nominated members of the Organising Committee against pre-defined assessment criteria, with authors notified of their inclusion on the program or otherwise in mid-June.

During the main program days, 288 of ePosters were displayed electronically in the ePoster Presentation zone, 31 abstracts were presented as Free Communications and 20 as Static Posters.

Awards were presented for the best Early Career Researcher Presentation, Best Free Communication Oral Presentation (Aldo Vacca Award) and best Platform Poster. Free Communication Oral Presentations and Platform Posters were assessed on criteria including significance to the discipline of obstetrics and gynaecology or perinatal medicine; research design and methodology; and clarity of presentation. Sponsored by Wiley, the awards were presented by Dr Vijay Roach, during the meeting closing session.

Best Free Communication
Oral Presentation

Aldo Vacca Award

The award for Best Free Communication Oral Presentation, and prize was awarded to Roshan Selvaratnam for the presentation titled: Unintended harm involved in the detection of fetal growth restriction

Best Static
Poster Award

The award for Best Static Poster, was presented to Vinayak Smith for the poster titled Evaluating the reliability of a novel non-invasive wearable sensor (Fetal Kicks) for the continuous detection of fetal movements

Researcher Awards

RANZCOG Early Career Researcher Award

The RANZCOG Early Career Researcher Award prize went to Amy Goh for the presentation titled Comparison of surgical outcomes using Gyrus PK and LigaSure in total laparoscopic hysterectomy: a randomised controlled trial

Diplomate Researcher Award

The RANZCOG Diplomate Researcher Award was presented to Richelle Douglas for the presentation titled If we don’t ask we don’t know: do intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion adversely affect sexual health outcomes