From the USANZ Operations Room

For UroNews 2 July 2021

This edition of The USANZ Operations Room comes to you from within the most recent Sydney lockdown. Of course, this most recent lockdown now extends to many parts of Australia and we again extend an offer of support and wish continued strength to any USANZ Member who is affected.

Due to the recent changes in restrictions in Sydney and the fact that the office is within the area where the first cases were originally identified, the USANZ team has once again moved to working from home until further notice. While we have always endeavoured to make the transitions from office-to-home, and home-to-office-based working as seamless as possible, there are often some unavoidable glitches and delays. During this time we ask you to be patient and recommend that you contact the team via email rather than phone. Phone messages will be directed to the team regularly but may experience some delays. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our Members or stakeholders.

Just prior to the lockdown we were very fortunate to have been able to hold face-to-face interviews as part of our SET Urology Selection Interviews for the 2022 intake. Deborah Klein, Education & Training Manager, and Kirsten Isaacs, Training Administrator were again kept on their toes keeping up with changing restrictions in the various jurisdictions where interviews were being held. The amount of work in organising the interviews with so many people involved is, in itself, an enormous task. When you then start adding the impact of adapting to changing restrictions (while also planning contingencies upon contingencies), the work and stress are amplified. I want to thank both Deborah and Kirsten for their amazing efforts, managing to keep their cool while coordinating and executing the interviews in such trying circumstances (including conducting the interviews in Melbourne with face shields). Thank you both very much.

It was face shields all around for those at the Melbourne Interviews: (L to R) Elliot Anderson, Venetia Hoe, Jo-Lynn Tan, Dominic Bagguley.

I'd also like to thank the many people who gave their time and energy to ensure the success of the interviews, starting with the Selection Sub-Committee members Lydia John Putra, Eva Fong, Melvyn Kuan, Joseph Ischia, John Preston, Raymond Ko, Rob Forsyth.  In addition, there were a number of Members who were involved as Interviewers across the three interview sites of Auckland, Melbourne and Brisbane. I'd like to thank Gideon Blecher, Jason Du, Renu Eapen, Sandra Elmer, Paul Gilmore, Jacob Gleeson, Marc Heinau, Michael Holmes, Jyotsna Jayarajan, Arman Kahokehr, Nestor Lalak, Adam Landau, Malcolm Lawson, Andrew Lienert, Andrew Malcolm, Daniel Marshall, David Merilees, Jon-Paul Meyer, Declan Murphy, Bradley Newell, Stuart Philip, Mariolyn Raj, Handoo Rhee, Matthew Roberts, Nick Rukin, Kapil Sethi and Simon Van Rij. Without your commitment, the interviews would not have been such a success. Finally, I'd like to thank Sophie Tissot, a current SET Trainee for assisting as a candidate marshall for the Melbourne Interviews.

And while it may feel as though it is quite a distance away given the current circumstances, work is already starting on the USANZ ASM 2023 Melbourne. Next week we close the expressions of interest for two positions, the USANZ ASM 2023 Convenor and the USANZ ASM 2023 Scientific Committee Chair. I'd like to encourage all interested Members to ensure they get their expressions of interest in before the deadline at 5:00pm AEST next Friday 9 July 2021. You can access more information about the EOIs.

Until next month,

Michael Nugara
USANZ CEO