Mr William THOMAS MS FRCS
Consultant Surgeon and Clinical Director of Surgery
Teaching
- From 1994 to 2003 I was the Surgical Skills Tutor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
- In this capacity I have written and developed the mandatory intercollegiate Basic Surgical Skills Course that is now run in over 54 different centres in the UK and throughout the world. This is now in its 5th Edition.
- I have also developed the Specialist Registrar Skills Course in General Surgery which introduced SpRs to Core Skills in general surgery
- With the assistance of Professor Aluwihare of Sri Lanka I have developed a modular teaching resource for developing countries entitled Introduction to Surgical Skills. This was funded by the Commonwealth of Learning and is now available in over 50 different countries including Africa and Asia.
- I have convened and taught on regular surgical skills courses in the UK and am on the Board for the International Workshop for Gastrointestinal Surgery in Davos, Switzerland. I have convened similar workshops and courses in Singapore, Hongkong, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Holland, Germany, Pakistan, Kuwait, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Ghana, China, South Africa, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Laos, Borneo, Zambia, Jordan, Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Guatemala.
- I have been visiting professor to Singapore, Hong Kong, Perth Australia, Lausanne Switzerland for the purposes of teaching both undergraduates and postgraduates.
- I have published several teaching books and over 200 teaching articles in Hospital Update and Surgery. I was editor in chief of Surgery from 1995 to 2017. I have recently edited the Oxford Textbook of Surgery- ‘The Fundamentals of Surgery’.
- I previously taught anatomy at Downing and Corpus Christie Colleges in Cambridge, and have continued an interest in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and lecturing
- I have recently stood down as Dean of the Academy of Education of the International Society of Surgery
- I have also published widely on teaching and assessment
Assessing the technical skills of surgical trainees
Beard JD, Jolly BC, Newble DI, Thomas WEG, Donnelly J, Southgate LJ.
Br.J.Surg. 2005;92:778-782
Developing assessments of Surgical Skills for the GMC Performance Procedures
Beard JD, Jolly BC, Southgate LJ, Newble DI, Thomas WEG, Rochester J
Ann.Roy.Coll.Surg.Eng. 2005;87:242-247
Faculty Development and the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project
Thomas WEG, Alexander F
Ann.Roy.Coll.Surg.Eng. (suppl) 2006;88:224-225
Teaching and Assessing Surgical Competence
Thomas WEG
Ann.Roy.Coll.Surg.Eng. 2006;88:429-432
The Basic Surgical Skills Course: a 10-year success story
Thomas WEG
Ann.Roy.Coll.Surg.Eng. (suppl) 2007;89:90-91
Ensuring a graduated and integrated progression of learning in a changing environment
Thomas WEG
ANZ Journal of Surgery