New Year Honours for Glasgow Fellows
The College is pleased to celebrate the success of three of our Fellows in the 2009 New Year Honours List. Within the last two years we have welcomed Sir Bernard Ribeiro, Sir Andrew Cubie and Sir Neil Douglas. All three have been deeply involved in intercollegiate affairs and I am sure you would like to join me in sending our heartiest congratulations.

White coats outlawed!
All surgeons have concerns about surgical site infections and indeed hospital acquired infections. There is much good evidence related to how these can be minimised. However, it seems that a dogma based view is being taken to completely change the kind of dress code which has become standard in the belief that a positive impact on infection rates will ensue. Both BBC Scotland and the Herald carried the account. Anyone convinced?

New Year reading
Here are a few thematic books dealing with contemporary surgical and medical issues from both sides of the Atlantic. All going cheap on Amazon! All have amazing reviews and come highly recommended. Me – I am dipping into some philosophy, even some philosophy of religion. If my head survives you can expect some feedback…

Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. He also has a new book; Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance where he explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable.His vivid stories take in battlefield surgical tents in Iraq, a polio outbreak in India and malpractice courtrooms around the USA. He discusses the ethical dilemmas of doctors' participation in lethal injections, examines the influence of money on modern medicine and recounts the astoundingly contentious history of hand-washing.

How about Bedside Stories: Confessions of a Junior Doctor. Written by Michael Foxton who wrote about his experiences as a junior doctor in the NHS for the "Guardian" for two years. Vivid, hilarious and often alarming, his book has gone on to find a cult following among doctors and patients alike. His observations illuminate the quirks, horrors and delights of all aspects of doctoring.

Finally - you might like Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Possibly the funnies book you'll read this year. According to Sir Iain Chalmers, Founder of the Cochrane Library, Bad Science introduces the basic scientific principles to help everyone to become an effective detector of unsubstantiated dogma. Actually he used a different term in his view - somewhat less politically correct!