1) On July 1, 2017, ASCA held a hands-on surgical workshop for 28 doctors sponsored by Avene to keep costs low. 2) Drs. Kennedy, Goh, and Freeman led a 3-hour session covering skin surgery theory and practice, with participants practicing skills on pig parts. 3) Feedback from participants was uniformly positive about the educational experience and interaction.

1. ASCA/Avene Workshop July 1 2017
Saturday July 1, 2017 saw ASCA stage a hands on surgical workshop for 28 doctors at their Fortitude Valley. This event was sponsored
by Avene (insert link here) which meant costs were kept to a minimum.
ASCA specialist plastic surgeons, Drs Dan Kennedy and Raymond Goh took the group through a rigorous 3 hour session on the theory
and practice of skin surgery. Participants were able to practice their skills on pork bellies and pigs trotters under the extra tutelage of
Dr James Freeman a very experienced GP and senior lecturer at the University of Queensland who has practiced solely in the field of
skin cancer for over a decade. Dr Jim Muir was in attendance to provide a specialist dermatologist view of the approach to surgical
management of skin malignancy.
The group had already been part of a 3 hour pre-workshop educational session the preceding Tuesday at ASCA’s Stafford rooms. This
workshop dealt with how to get the most out of a skin check examination. Dermoscopic evaluation of skin lesions was covered in
detail by Dr Ben Carew. At all ASCA events interaction and questions from the audience are encouraged.
Written feedback from 16 of the attending doctors was gratifyingly positive. Uniformly ‘excellent’ ratings were recorded in response
to ‘overall quality of the educational components as a learning experience’, ‘opportunity to ask questions for clarification’,
‘opportunity to interact’ and ‘appropriateness of the length of the presentation’.

2. ASCA/Avene Workshop July 1 2017
During this hands on, interactive workshop topics covered included;
• Equipping your surgical suite
• Incorporating digital imaging into skin cancer management
• Optimising local anaesthesia
• Biopsy techniques (punch, shave, the Steifel curette and excisional)
• Curettage and cautery
• The ‘X’ stitch
• Second intention healing
• Excision with sub cutaneous closures
• Dealing with complications
• Danger areas
• The ‘unclosable’ wound

3. ASCA/Avene Workshop July 1 2017
By the end of the session participating doctors had practiced their skills
to perform painless local anaesthesia, handle their surgical equipment
correctly and safely, perform punch and shave biopsies, shave
excisions, punch excisions, elliptical excisions with sub cutaneous
closures and how to decide on what closure to use for a surgical defect.
A high point for all except one was seeing Dr Muir have a seborrhoeic
keratosis shaved from his cheek. A video of this can be seen…..Lewis?

4. ASCA/Avene Workshop July 1 2017
The aim of an ASCA event is to equip participants with the confidence,
knowledge and skills to diagnose and manage the vast majority of solar
related skin disease, to a high standard, within their own practices.
ASCA wants to provide this in a manner that is affordable and
convenient. To this end ASCA provides it’s services outside of usual
working hours in our own facilities. We feel strongly that medical
education should be run by doctors, for doctors. To this end we do
partner with commercial entities but they have no influence over the
content or delivery of our educational events.

5. The day begins with ASCA plastic surgeons Kennedy and Goh