BIARGS history

history of BIARGS

The first gynaecological robotic case in the UK was performed by Thomas Ind and Professor John Shepherd in 2007 who performed a hysterectomy at The Royal Marsden Hospital. The first gynaecological robotic surgery programme in the UK was launched at The Royal Surrey County Hospital by Peter Barton-Smith, Simon Butler-Manuel and Anil Tailor in 2009 and went on to become one of five European Epicentres for Intuitive da Vinci training. There were 8 robots in the UK at this point. Since then more da Vinci robots have been acquired by hospitals, and more gynaecologists have adopted robotic surgery. Currently there are close to da Vinci 100 robots in the UK.

BIARGS was created in 2010 by Peter Barton-Smith, Professor John Shepherd and Professor Jeremy Wright as a forum for surgeons starting in robotics for benign and oncological surgery. Anil Tailor and Peter Barton-Smith created a website to act as the initial portal. BIARGS became a national society affiliated to SERGS (Society of European Robotic Surgery) and became a recognised specialist society at the RCOG in 2016 (? Check with Tom when we joined SERGS). BIARGS takes part in RCOG scientific meetings and advising the college where appropriate, and is just completing an RCOG Scientific Impact Paper. BIARGS organised the SERGS meeting in London in 2013 and is organising the 2020 SERGS meeting in Cork on BIARGS 10th anniversary.

The inaugural meeting of BIARGs was held on 12 and 13 October 2010 at the RCOG (Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists) and was attended by overseas experts Arnold Advincula and John Dulemba who became honorary members. Since then, scientific annual meetings have been held at the following venues: