The NIHR Surgical MedTech Co-operative (MIC) held their annual national meeting in Leeds, looking to the future with the theme “Surgery 2030: Transformative Technologies”. The event brought together industry experts, clinicians, allied health professionals, and students for a packed day of talks and activities, highlighting the future challenges of surgery and focusing on improving surgical care through technological innovation.

The day featured talks from several prominent international researchers who are using the latest cutting edge technologies to advance surgical and patient care, including talks on:

• Creating, developing and testing new surgical innovations using a human centred design approach
• Virtual surgery intelligence and the use of augmented reality to enhance surgeon performance and capability, using Microsoft’s HoloLens technology
• New frontiers of 3D and 4D bioprinting for surgical biocompatibility

The day continued with several workshops and activities taking place, focussing on frameworks for the evaluation of innovation in surgery and surgical devices, as well as patient representatives providing their insight into the physical, mental, emotional, and social barriers accompanying surgery and the impact that these have on the patients overall quality of life.

The day concluded with talks from ‘spoke’ groups affiliated with the Surgical MIC, showcasing how the MICs involvement has been instrumental in establishing new services and groups to boost surgical innovation within the UK. These included student representatives of the MedTech Foundation, an engagement initiative by the Surgical MIC to introduce medical and healthcare University students to the world of surgical research and to support them on their journey to becoming early stage career researchers.