Iain Tait

Mr Iain Tait is a Senior lecturer and Honorary consultant surgeon with an interest in laparoscopic surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, and emergency general surgery.

Iain has a major interest in laparoscopic treatment of cancers of the liver, bile duct and pancreas, and several novel techniques have been pioneered within this Department for the treatment of such cancers i.e. laparoscopic liver surgery, laparoscopic pancreatic surgery, in-situ ablation of liver cancer, and photodynamic therapy for bile duct cancer.

Laparoscopic (key hole) surgery for major cancer operations such as resection of liver or pancreatic cancers improves patient recovery and reduces the length of hospital stay, and has proved to be more cost effective than traditional surgery.

It is important that these novel surgical innovations and techniques are supported by appropriate structured and mentored Training programs in surgical skills, to enable senior surgical colleagues to acquire new techniques and surgical trainees to assimilate the basic skills to become competent in surgery.

Iain was appointed Director of Surgical Skills training at CSC in 2009, and the post-graduate skills program provides training courses in basic, intermediate and advanced training in endoscopy, general surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology and ENT.

In collaboration with the Centre of Anatomy & Human Identification (CAHiD) we have developed and trialled new cadaveric models for surgical training and now run Master-classes and training courses using the new Thiel model for laparoscopic training in surgery.