Yearly Updates
UKAS Newsletter - 2024
Improve, Innovate and Educate
Following on from the annual Belfry meeting in September 2023, the executive team have been meeting and working on our overarching strategy and aims. This newsletter is to update our members on the progress reached and advertise upcoming endorsed education events.
Charitable Status
The executive is delighted to announce charitable status was granted by the charity commission on the 19th December 2023. Our registered charity number is 1206283.
The changes that this brings about for us as an organisation include a formalised constitution with aims and objectives, alongside a more formal membership process, subscription charges and reporting back to the charity commission on our accounts on an annual basis. We are now running into our 11th year having started as a group of interested clinicians. To date we have a X account (handle @UK_Aorta) with 147 followers, a webpage, www.UK-AS.org and a support forum on what’s app, with 104 participants for clinical queries. The annual meeting continues to be free to attend and regularly enjoy’s over 50 participants at an annual day meeting at the Belfry each September. Since 2021 we have a formal executive team and our registered trustees for our charity status are:
- Manoj Kuduvalli (tenure 4 years)
- Karen Booth (tenure 3 years)
Sunil Bhudia (tenure 2 years)
These trustees will be replaced when the executive position they hold is replaced by another member, which will take place via a formal interview process. To apply for an executive position the charity requires an applicant to be a member of UK-AS for at least 3 years and in good standing with their employer and regulator. An application form will be completed and then the applicant offered an interview with at least two members of the current executive team and a non-executive director member. The team will have consistency by only one position changing in any one calendar year. The post will be advertised prior to the SCTS annual meeting where interviews will be held.
We receive regular requests to endorse clinical regional pathways, research projects and education/study days. We are now in the position to formalise the executive team, how to apply for a position, terms of office and governance of positions alongside application for research and educational support. We will need administrative support for this work and will have to formalise membership to facilitate these processes. For this role we are pleased to announce the appointment of Miss Amy Farrell who will be contactable on admin@uk-as.org.
Intended changes to membership of UK-AS
Membership fees (due August annually)
Bank account: Tide
Acc no. 16365845
Sort code 04-06-05
Consultant membership fee – £50 (reduced to £45 for those members who set up an annual direct debit)
Trainee membership fee – free
Nursing and allied healthcare professional membership fee – free.
What is included in the membership fee?
Membership entitles you to free entry to an annual day conference held at the Belfry on the first Saturday of September each year. For those who wish to attend but are not registered as members, entry carries a fee of £100, so a discount of 50% to UK-AS members.
All members will have their names and bio’s published on our website and can enjoy discount on any UK-AS organised event.
Community support and clinical queries facility
UK-AS is a charitable organisation established for
The relief of sickness and the preservation of health among those suffering, or at risk of suffering from aortic disease by advancing the education of health care professionals in the diagnosis, treatment and surveillance of aortic disease.
To this end the use of a what’s app group to be renamed ‘UK-AS Clinical Support’ is open to any registered doctor, nurse or allied health professional who wishes to join and enjoy educational content that is discussed and is completely free to use. Approval to join will be sought from the UK-AS admin team through email on admin@uk-as.org where professional body registration will be checked and verified. The use of this forum will be for discussing clinical care of patients and will be strictly anonymised by the uploading practitioner. Any advice given over this forum can constitute an out of unit discussion/opinion for recording in patient notes. If a wider MDT opinion is to be recorded, this format can be used so long as discussion includes opinion from at least 3 different disciplines such as radiology, vascular and cardiac surgery and should be noted in clinical records alongside the names of those who participated in the discussion and their place of work.
Webpage
The webpage will have annual maintenance and members of UK-AS are welcome to submit material for display once approval has been sought by the UK-AS executive. It is an excellent forum to advertise local events or posts/fellowships and will have a public and member facing pages according to the content being provided.
Communication to the UK-AS Membership
All members will be on an email circulation list updated each year upon payment of a membership fee. For the following 12 months there will be
- An annual newsletter
- Invitation to a one-day conference
- Invitation to a monthly UK—AS education Webinar series
Database Working Group
With thanks to our members, Ms Ana Lopez-Marco, Professor Aung Oo and our Chair, Mr Manoj Kuduvalli and research lead Mr Stefano Forlani, a subset of the UK-AS membership have been meeting quarterly to pursue a UK aortic database through NICOR. The UK-AS executive are pleased with progress towards a new aortic section for the NICOR database which collects patient data from all units throughout the UK and Ireland. This will allow for more accurate recording of accuracy of procedures performed and where, improving research and education as we head in 2024.
Research projects and publications to date of UK-AS
Publications
- Fowler C, Kuduvalli M, Cooper G. Introduction to the three-part series on aortic dissection. Br J Cardiol. 2023 Mar 7;30(1):8. doi: 10.5837/bjc.2023.008. PMID: 37705838; PMCID: PMC10495765.
- Booth K; (on behalf of UK-AS, the UK Aortic Society). Acute aortic dissection (AAD) – a lethal disease: the epidemiology, pathophysiology and natural history. Br J Cardiol. 2023 Mar 7;30(1):9. doi: 10.5837/bjc.2023.009. PMID: 37705834; PMCID: PMC10495757.
- Riccardo Proietti, Mark Field, Victoria McKay, Gregory Y H Lip, Manoj Kuduvalli, (on behalf of UK Aortic Society) Screening for the vulnerable aorta: targeting high-risk groups in the population Br J Cardiol 2023;30:95–8 doi: 10.5837/bjc.2023.025
- Metesh Acharya, Giovanni Mariscalco, Diagnosis and acute management of type A aortic dissection, Br J Cardiol 2023;30(2) doi: 10.5837/bjc.2023.012
Ongoing Research Projects
- FET study
- UK-AS Current Service Specification Survey
Education Stream
The UK-AS executive team have continued their contributions to research evaluation for the SCTS annual meeting and organisation of the SCTS University Day. For 2024 we also announce, we have produced a webinar series starting in 2024 – full details to be announced at the SCTS annual meeting.
| Date | Topics |
|---|---|
| April 2024 | Imaging in aortic surgery – how to correctly measure an aortic diameter in effective screening and sizing of a FET device |
| May 2024 | Principal of Aortic Dissection Surgery and Cannulation strategy. How do I do it? |
| June 2024 | Neuroprotection strategies in aortic surgery |
| July 2024 |
Malperfusion treatment in acute aortic dissection. Why do we still call Vascular? Summer Break – August 2024 |
| September 2024 | Ascending aorta Replacement – The Easiest operation in the world, right? |
| October 2024 | Aortic root replacement – How well can I do a Bentall’s? |
| November 2024 |
Hemi Arch Replacement – When is it appropriate? Christmas Break December 2024 |
| January 2025 | Sutureless Valve Replacement – economy of time or better exercise tolerance? |
| February 2025 | Aortic Arch Replacement – step by step, the rules of safety |
| March 2025 | Aortic Valve Repair – will it every become routine |
| April 2025 | David procedure /Yacoub’s procedure – why I choose David every time |
| May 2025 | Frozen Elephant Trunk surgery – lessons over a career |
| June 2025 | Open thoracoabdominal aortic repair – how to keep it safe and standardised |
Upcoming UK-AS endorsed meetings
SCTS Annual Meeting 2024
Please come join us in Cardiff for our first face to face UK-AS member meeting since the Belfry and enjoy the aortic surgery sessions and our yearly member meeting at Hall 3E on 17.00 Monday 18th March Register at: httpss://scts.org.uk/scts_annual_meeting
The educational content for the aortic workstream has been organised by the UKAS education team, Mr M Sabetai and Mr A Modi and covers guidelines and data, complex aortic surgery – techniques and innovation, referral networks and optimisation of outcomes in complex aortic surgery.
UK-AS Exec Team:
Manoj Kudavalli, Karen Booth, Sunil Bhudia, Michael Sabetai, Stefano Forlani, Giovanni Mariscalco, Amit Modi