STORCCS's objective is to establish a regional Australian based collaborative of future surgeons designing and undertaking research, audit and clinical trials.​

About STORCC

The Surgical Trainee Organisation for Research was founded at Gosford in 2016. In January 2018 STORCC commenced its first international trial - IMAGINE.  The University of Newcastle Central Coast Clinical School, a regional clinical school in Gosford, New South Wales, Australia provides the academic, structural and logistical support to the collaborative development.

Trainee led collaboratives have a dual purpose, as they promote a culture of trial design, conduct and governance at a formative stage of surgical training and will ultimately produce consultants who are both efficient consumers of research and actively involved in research.

Publications that result from this research will recognise the work of each individual who contributes to the project as an investigator. Each investigator that provides their time to a STORCC project will be listed as a PubMed citable co-author. 

Trainee-led regional networks in general surgery have changed the paradigm for a collaborative approach to research.  They have proven to be very effective in the UK and have allowed trainees and medical students to deliver large multicentre clinical trials.  Historically, the Royal College of General Physicians studied the collaboration of trainees studying measles. In 2007 the West Midlands Research Collaborative was founded. By 2016, there were 33 documented surgical trainee research organisations.

STORCC was honored to be included in the foundation of CTANZ in 2017 (Activities | RACS (surgeons.org). The chair of STORCC is a member of this committee. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons through the Section of Academic Surgery recognised that the interests of patients would be best served by preparing scientifically literate trainees who will develop the necessary skills vital to the growth of a robust community of academic surgeons. The Clinical Trials Network Australia New Zealand (CTANZ) was established to bring this vision to fruition. CTANZ is modelled on the highly successful Clinical Trials Network of UK which adopted a “bottom up” trainee driven instead of a “top down” consultant dictated approach.

CTANZ seeks to inspire current and future trainees to make a difference by incorporating research into their daily practice. Here the surgical trainees working in specialty networks are the principal investigators recruiting patients into multi-centre prospective clinical trials, during their training rotations. The emphasis is on empowering surgical trainees to design, conduct, analyse and publish clinical trials during their training period. Trainee networks are supported by appointed Surgical Specialty Leads (SSLs) who mentor and provide arm’s length guidance to the networks.

PRIZES:

Clinical Leadership and Engagement
College Health, Medicine and Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle (Australia) December 2022

This award recognised and celebrated the outstanding contributions of STORCC for their inspiring achievements that contribute to the University of Newcastle;s vision and values. It was awarded for excellence in clinical leadership and engagement, promoting and supporting the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve.

The Committee

The Chair for 2021 is Dr Elizabeth Lun.

The founding chair was Dr Colby Stevenson. The immediate past chair is Dr Andrew Drane.

The collaborative is supported by Associate Professor Amanda Dawson, consultant academic surgeon.

We would like to acknowledge the support of Mrs Louise Lambeth, research co-ordinator and Dr Michael David, biostatistician of the University of Newcastle Central Coast Clinical School.

The projects are led by trainees and medical students and performed by anyone who is keen to get involved. The role of the committee is to facilitate the overall running and maintenance of this platform, formalise regional projects and linkages.

Current Chair of STORCC:

Dr Elizabeth Lun

Charlotte Cornwell, medical student lead 2022

Past Chairs of STORCC:

Dr Andrew Drane

Dr Sarah Xiao-Ming Woon-Shoo Tong (final year medical student lead 2018)

Dr Colby Stevenson (founding chair)

Corporate Authorship Model

A corporate authorship model is used by the STORCC group, for example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29452941

How should I cite publications on my CV?

Whilst it is up to individuals to decide how they design their CVs, we suggest that co-authors

clearly state their contribution to each output. We suggest the following citation format to

ensure transparency:

• Generic format: COVIDSurg Collaborative [Your name & authorship role as

recorded in published authorship list]. Title. Journal. Year, volume, isssue, page

numbers.

• Example: COVIDSurg Collaborative [Joe Bloggs, local collaborator]. Effect of

COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns on planned cancer surgery for 15 tumour types in 61

countries: an international, prospective, cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2021

Nov;22(11):1507-1517.

Resources

• "How to set up and manage a trainee-led research collaborative”- G. Dowswell, D.C. Bartlett, K. Futaba, L. Whisker, T.D. Pinkney. BMC Medical Education 14: 94, 1472 2014

• Changing landscape of surgical research: a trainee perspective. N Duki-Venkata, C Wells. ANZ Journal of Surgery 90 (2020) 2173-2174

• Trainee-Led Collaboratives, clinical trials and new opportunities in the COVID-19 era. D Watson, L Tan, V Muralidharan, P Pockney. ANZ Journal of Surgery 90 (2020) 2175-2176.

• Trainee and student-led research networks: promoting research skills and competency through collaboration. ANZ Journal of Surgery 90 (2020) 2177-2179

Membership

Membership is free and open to medical students, interns, trainees and consultants.

If you would like to get involved please come to one of our meetings, or contact us.