32
Publish or perish? Working together: the surgical Mentor and the surgical Trainee Research Centre. Research Fellowships were established, which attracted high quality Trainees from around the world, many of whom returned to their own country and established themselves as international leaders in the field of microsurgery. Following O’Brien’s early death in 1993, an obituary written by Professor Wayne Morrison, outlined his friend’s lifetime achievements—from his appointment at St Vincent’s where with the support of Dick Bennett, Professor of Surgery, O’Brien gained access to a disused mortuary. He immediately commenced animal research into microvascular repair techniques, histological evaluation of repair and injury, and the unique development of microsurgical instrumentation, which led to some of the earliest publications in this field. In 1961 Professor Ian Aird of London, wrote, The Making of a Surgeon: the 15 chapters encompassed historical aspects, attributes requisite in a surgeon, the registrar, and surgical training abroad, inter alia. Chapter 7, The Registrar, notes: ‘the proper duties of a registrar are to assist at major operations, to perform lesser operations under the direction of his seniors, to make sure that full and accurate notes are kept about patients, to be concerned particularly with preoperative and post-operative care, to extend his reading, and if possible, to begin to engage, also under suitable direction, in the work of a research team’. This advice had been foreshadowed in an editorial of the November 1950 ANZ Journal of Surgery, when Sir Hugh Devine, former President of the Australasian College, wrote on Surgical judgement: ‘It is judgement even more than skill that makes a truly successful surgeon. At the outset of surgical training the student is required to absorb a mass of accepted knowledge, and then as time goes on, the surgeon begins to exchange memorising for reasoning habits of mind. ‘Under the influence of those who have attained a position in the profession,
which entitles them to hand on the torch of knowledge, the way of wisdom and judgement becomes apparent to the surgical trainee’. In June 1985, on being conferred with the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Bernard O’Brien FRACS delivered an address, The Challenge of Surgery. His comments included these words, with reference to the desirable characteristics of a surgeon: ‘Young surgical trainees and surgeons need intellectual as well as technical skills. It is my passionate belief that early in a surgical career one should be intellectually challenged in depth, and I do not mean the day-to-day intellectual challenges that arise in diagnosis and patient management, but a deep study of a specific area. 'This may be, for instance, an analysis of results in the clinical field. It can consist of a research project, either clinical or experimental, which may lead to a publication or even a thesis for a senior degree.’ O’Brien had instituted the Microsurgery Foundation at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne in 1970, which led to the establishment of the Microsurgery
Initially using his own money, O’Brien soon gained NHMRC research funding, and this support continued almost uninterrupted until his death. In May 1975, the Sunday Press Magazine in Melbourne featured a prominent article titled, Miracles, we do now: raising money, takes longer. Essentially it was an article designed to garner financial resources for the research unit at St Vincent’s. This was just one of the great skills of Bernard O’Brien—the ability to inspire support, financial and otherwise, for his interests. The article detailed that there were four full-time surgical research fellows, and eight part-time surgeons and that St Vincent’s had the largest microsurgical research unit in the world. I chanced to be
