Damian McMahon Trauma Research Travel Grant for Trainees

Dr Damian McMahon FRACS was an integral and influential member of the RACS Trauma Committee, Chair of the Trauma Verification Sub-Committee and a passionate educator of Trainees - especially in the area of trauma. He tragically died in 2012.

The Damian McMahon Travel Grant has been established to recognise and honour the commitment and work that Dr McMahon gave to RACS as well as rewarding excellence in trauma research.

This grant for Trainees is based on research into cause, prevention and/or management of trauma. The aim of the travel grant is to encourage Trainees (general or other surgical specialties) to undertake research into trauma.

To be eligible for the award, an applicant must meet one of the following criteria:

• A resident hospital medical officer or house surgeon who has successfully completed the Generic Surgical Science Examination (GSSE) exam but has not yet applied to Surgical Education and Training (SET)

• A resident hospital medical officer or house surgeon who has registered to apply for SET training and has been confirmed as eligible to apply

• A resident hospital medical officer or house surgeon who has applied for SET training within the current year

• A resident hospital medical officer or house surgeon who has been accepted but is yet to commence a SET program

• A SET Trainee

• A RACS Fellow who has been accepted into the Post-Fellowship Education and Training (PFET) program in Trauma or any other surgical discipline

• A non-accredited Trauma Fellow

(NB: Eligibility for ACS-COT (American College of Surgeons Committees on Trauma) competition: abstracts submitted may have been previously presented but not published as full papers in any peer-reviewed journal)

At the time of the ASC abstract submission, applicants will be asked if they would like to be considered for the Damian McMahon Trauma Research Travel Grant, and which of the above applies.  They will be required to include their RACS ID number. This information can be verified by the SET office in late February.

Please also note the following:

• Institutional Ethics Committee approval may be required.  It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain if necessary.
• A commercial disclosure statement is required.
• All sources of funding should be acknowledged and the author must declare any involvement of sponsors in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data or the writing of the paper.  If there is no such involvement this should be stated.

The Damian McMahon Trauma Research Travel Grant is awarded to the best oral trauma paper presented by an eligible Trainee at the RACS Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) - or equivalent conference*.  It is based on research into cause, prevention and/or management of trauma.  Abstracts are submitted in line with the specifications of the ASC and should describe original research in trauma, critical care or injury prevention. 

The ASC presentations will be judged by a panel appointed by the ASC Trauma program convener which includes members of the RACS Trauma Committee.  Adjudicators should be neither a supervisor of nor contributor to the papers being adjudicated.  The adjudicators for the abstract and the presentation need not necessarily be the same.  An objective structured scoring system will be used and no award will be made if, in the opinion of the adjudicators, no paper is of sufficient merit. 

Presentations will be judged on

• originality
• background/theory
• methods
• results
• relevance – potential impact
• presentation style and quality.

It is a condition of the grant that the winning trainee will present their paper at the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Region XVI meeting.  The grant (A$3,000.00) is intended to cover out-of-pocket expenses for travel to the Region XVI meeting which is held in the Asia Pacific region. 

Furthermore, the ATLS Region XVI winner is invited to present their paper at the scientific meeting of the American College of Surgeons Committees on Trauma (ACS Cot) in March the following year and is eligible for publication in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The RACS Trauma Committee has governance of the grant (including selection).  The Convener of the ASC Trauma section coordinates the competition and oversees eligibility.

Relevant policy: Damian McMahon Trauma Research Travel Grant for Trainees Corpus Terms of Reference (REA-RES-078) (PDF 46.85KB)

*Equivalent conferences may be considered as deemed suitable by the RACS Trauma Committee - for example the ANZ Chapter of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma meeting, which is held every four years in Hawaii.

The 2022 Damian McMahon Trauma Research Travel Grant will be awarded to the best trauma research paper presented by a trainee at the RACS Annual Scientific Congress held in Brisbane on 2-6 May 2022.  Abstract submissions for the 2022 ASC open in late October 2021 and close 8:00 am Thursday 27 January 2022 – visit asc.surgeons.org for more information about the Annual Scientific Congress.

View the flyer (PDF 105.29KB) for more information about the 2022 grant.

The Damian McMahon Trauma Research Paper competition was not able to be held at the Annual Scientific Congress in 2020 but instead presented at a webinar on 29 August. 

View the program and abstracts (PDF 313.08KB). 

View the recorded webinar 

Trauma Committee Secretariat
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
250-290 Spring Street
East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia

Telephone: +61 3 9276 7448
Fax: +61 3 9276 7432
Email: trauma@surgeons.org