Professor Angus Watson, a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Raigmore Hospital, has been appointed as the Clinical Professor of Surgery at Aberdeen University.
On the achievement, Angus Watson said: “I am delighted to have been honoured with this position, which represents a historic investment in academic surgery in the Highlands of Scotland.”
The post will allow Angus to further champion surgical research and innovation in the region, ultimately improving the health and wellbeing of the Highland population.
Angus has a strong interest in health and social care innovation and clinical research, particularly in cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. Shortly after becoming a consultant surgeon in Inverness, he became a Research and Development Director for NHS Highland. During his ten-year tenure he assisted in growing the staff from 5 people to 60 people and introduced Surgical Research Fellows to Raigmore Hospital. These positions have led to great success by attracting young surgeons to work in Inverness to undertake meaningful research. Angus has mentored 13 of these surgical fellows to achieve their post-graduate degrees.
Angus was also behind the creation of Surgical Boot Camp, which is now in its 12th year. All core surgical trainees in Scotland come to Inverness to take part in the highly valued skills course, some even going on to become course directors themselves. Over 500 young surgeons have benefitted from this Boot Camp and have experienced first-hand what the Highlands has to offer in terms of health and social care innovation.
Another passion of Angus’s has been running large clinical trials from the North of Scotland, most notably the current Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE) programme, otherwise known as ScotCap. From a feasible trial in 2017, this diagnostic technology is now being used across the UK and in research performed in the Highlands and Islands, and has grown an international reputation. A clinical innovation first trialled in Ullapool has so far led to 10,000 CCE tests performed across the UK.
Angus’s work has led to the award of honorary chairs of surgery with the universities of Stirling, Aberdeen and the Highlands and Islands. It has also led to him being elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the oldest and largest surgical college in the world. Representing the surgical profession, he has recently visited Ukraine where he worked for UK-Med setting up a field surgical hospital 20 miles from the Russian border.
With a career research income of over £16million and research outputs of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, Angus’s appointment as Clinical Professor of Surgery at Aberdeen University is well deserved!
In 2023, he plans to return to Ukraine with UK-Med and is organising an international conference on CCE in April in Edinburgh, where experts across the world will attend. Also in April he is running the final of a UK medical student’s surgical skills competition. Skills boxes were sent to semi-finalist in all 43 medical schools in the UK. The boxes included 3D printed 'human-like' organs which were helped develop in the Highlands.
In his spare time, Angus will be training to run the Edinburgh Marathon in May for Bowel Cancer UK and he hopes to re-learn how to play the bagpipes!