BASO Sponsored Lecture by Prof Bill Heald
Prof Bill Heald presented the BASO~ACS Sponsored lecture at the
4th Portsmouth TME Symposium on 10th March 2018.
Here is a report from Mr Zaed Hamady, BASO Hon. Secretary
"On the 10th of April Prof Bill Heald, CBE was invited to
present a historical lecture about his lifetime achievement with
the development of TME rectal cancer resection. Bill is possibly
the eldest practicing surgeon; however, he refused to tell me his
age. He was vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, and currently the chairman of the colorectal group at the
Champalimaud Foundation for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal.
Bill is an enthusiastic sailor.
A simple search online on the most significant advances in
colorectal cancer treatment over the last four decades will cite
the TME rectal resection and minimally invasive technique as the
development that has revolutionised the rectal cancer treatment and
improved survival.
Professor Heald is a passionate educator who has dedicated
himself to training surgeons in the U.K. and the international
surgical community in the conduct of TME. He demonstrated TME
surgery in more than 50 countries and presented more than 600 Vedic
links teaching surgery since defining the "Holy Plane" of rectal
cancer surgery in 1988.
Bill Heald is the embodiment of the principle that dedication,
hard work, and a thorough study of one's subject will lead to
improvements in patient care. I am, therefore, proud and
tremendously pleased to present Prof. R.J. Heald, this year's
BASO-ACS lecture at the international 4th VIMAR TME Symposium.
During his presentation, Bill talked about earlier technique of
rectal cancer resection, and his sharp notice of natural holy
planes in pelvis were able to advance this surgery. Bill
proudly spoke about his open TME technique but with passion and
privilege presented laparoscopic and robotic TME videos performed
by his contemporaries colleagues, and how future cancer surgeons
generations should perform TME surgery."
