First Oncoplastic Surgery Workshop coming to Canada

According to the Canadian Breast Surgery Innovations group (CBSI), Oncoplastic Surgery is currently under-represented in Canada due to its slow adoption. CBSI’s goal is to increase adoption through educating general and breast surgeons, as well as surgical oncologists about Oncoplastic techniques and skills through the Oncoplastic Partnership Workshop Series.

Conference Chair Dr. Jeannie Richardson, one of the founders of CBSI and Breast Surgeon from Trillium Health Partners, invited Oncoplastics experts to share their expertise at this one-day hands-on workshop.

Dr. Richardson has been studying Oncoplastics since 2011. She has attended conferences in Milan and Paris in addition to studying and visiting plastic surgeons. “Although other breast surgeons are interested in learning about Oncoplastics, not all of them have the opportunity to travel and make such efforts to learn,” she said. With this in mind, Canada’s first hands-on workshop in Oncoplastic Surgery was designed in November 2016, with the goal of making this technique accessible to all Canadian breast surgeons.

Attendees of this first workshop expressed their intent to apply their new skills to breast cancer patients immediately. Dr. Richardson noted, “this has further galvanized our breast surgeons community – something that is so critical to ensuring that we continue to work towards offering our patients the best, high standard oncologic outcomes.”

The next workshop will be held at the University of Toronto Surgical Skills Centre Mount Sinai Hospital on June 24, 2017, in partnership with the Canadian Breast Cancer Symposium.

The workshop will:

  • Combine didactic lectures, video presentations, case discussions, marking tutorials, and cadaveric dissection in small groups for better learning.
  • Address main barriers to implementing Oncoplastic Surgery in treatment, including lack of training, lack of Plastic Surgery support, and lack of renumeration.

For more information and to register, visit https://www.breastsymposium.ca/workshop.