Last November, the University honoured the work of several high-achieving staff and teams at the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff. Today, applications open for staff to nominate colleagues and teams who have gone above and beyond their call of duty.
Meet Janos Tomka, Anatomy and Surgical Skills Coordinator from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science who was one of three award winners last year. This Week caught up with Janos to find out how the development grant he received (as part of his award) has benefited his role.
“I was honoured to receive the award last year,” said Janos. “At the same time I was pleased my contribution has helped elevate the reputation of the Faculty and the University.
Janos’ role is to organise and run surgical skills training workshops for both internal and external clients.
“An important part of my position is to liaise with national and international medical companies who use our facility to teach the latest surgical techniques. Last year we ran more than 100 workshops servicing over 35 medical companies and trained 1500 surgeons,” he said.
Janos used his development grant to attend the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress (EFORT) in Prague.
“EFORT is one of the largest medical congresses in Europe,” said Janos. “Thousands of orthopaedic and trauma surgeons gather from around the world to discuss the challenging topics in their field, to exchange experiences, present results and strengthen collaboration.”
Janos explains hundreds of medical companies exhibit and promote the latest surgical techniques, instruments and surgical implants.
“The event provided me the opportunity to learn more about new developments and trends, and provided further understanding of the education programs, techniques and surgical instruments our clients are currently developing,” he said. “Now, I can better integrate these into our training program and provide an even higher quality of service. Our facility is already well known among physicians and surgeons as the standard setter in medical training, and my new knowledge will only help further elevate our reputation.”
Hear from Professor S Bruce Dowton about the significance of the awards.