RCoA Nominations Committee announce two awards

The College is delighted to announce details of two awards from the September meeting of the Nominations Committee.

The first award is a President’s Commendation. This award was introduced in 2011 and is awarded to those who have provided a sustained or specific contribution to the College. Dr Mark Rezk, a Core Trainee working at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, is to be awarded the President’s Commendation for his services to e-Learning Anaesthesia (e-LA).

Just over 12 months ago, whilst working as a core trainee in the Northern Ireland School of Anaesthesia, Mark approached the e-LA team having compiled a set of expanded revision notes which he had built whilst using e-LA, for his revision for the Primary exam. Mark has since put in an enormous amount of work with the e-LA team, as well as examiners to refine and perfect his original revision notes into a series of revision guides. Three of the guides covering Pharmacology, Physiology and Physics are now published and since their launch in August 2020, they have been downloaded over 4500 times and are a valuable resource for Anaesthetists in Training.

We are also delighted to announce that Dr Sara Mele is to be awarded the Fellowship ad eundem.

Sara has worked as a consultant anaesthetist in adult and paediatric cardiothoracic anaesthesia for over 10 years. After specialist training in anaesthesia and intensive care in Siena, Italy she completed adult and paediatric cardiac anaesthetic fellowships in Milan and Berlin focusing on acquiring skills in transoesophageal echocardiography which led to full adult TOE accreditation with the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists (EACTA). Upon moving to the UK, she consolidated her skills in adult and paediatric cardiothoracic anaesthesia and intensive care, initially as an adult cardiothoracic anaesthetic fellow in Wolverhamton then working in paediatric intensive care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

In November 2014, she moved to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London where she provides the full range of adult and paediatric cardiothoracic anaesthesia. Since joining the team she has performed between 300 and 400 anaesthetics per year, encompassing the full age spectrum from neonates to elderly patients with heart and lung pathologies.

If you wish to find out more about these College awards along with others please visit our Awards and Honours page.