Congratulations to Jesse Ey, recipient of the Jenepher Martin Surgical Education Research Prize. He received this prize at the 2025 Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) in Sydney after presenting his research there.

This prize is awarded annually for the best research paper presentation during the Surgical Education program at the ASC to encourage research in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Since 1999, Associate Professor Jenepher Martin, FRACS has generously supported this prize in her name.

Jesse’s presentation—Non-technical error leading to patient fatalities in the Australian surgical population. [Authors: Jesse D Ey, Victoria Kollias, Octavia Lee, Kelly Hou, Matheesha B Herath, John B North, Ellie C Treloar, Martin H Bruening, Adam J Wells, Guy J Maddern]—was selected by a panel of judges with expertise in surgical education.

Jesse shares what it means to be this year’s Jenepher Martin Surgical Education Research Prize winner.

“My name is Jesse Ey, final year medical student and concurrent PhD candidate from the University of Adelaide under the supervision of Professor Guy Maddern, Professor Martin Bruening, and Dr Adam Wells.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to share this research with the Australian surgical community at the 2025 RACS ASC and am deeply honoured to have been awarded the Jenepher Martin Surgical Education Research Prize. 

“I wish to sincerely thank the Academy of Surgical Educators and Associate Professor Anthony Glover for awarding me this prize. I also wish to thank Associate Professor Jenepher Martin, a great pioneer in surgical education, whose influential work remains personally relevant to me as a medical student with aspirations of pursuing surgical training in Australia. 

“Finally, I must thank the ANZASM team, my supervisors, and co-authors without whom this important research would not have been possible.”

Background of the research: Understanding the impact of non-technical errors in surgery

The role of non-technical skills

Non-technical skills (professional skills)—including communication, decision-making, situational awareness, and leadership—are vital components of surgical professionalism. Failures in these areas contribute significantly to adverse events, formal complaints, increased hospital costs, and patient harm.

A critical gap in research

Despite their importance, there is limited evidence guiding non-technical skill improvement. Existing studies are few, often based on small, non-representative cohorts and inconsistent methodologies. This gap hinders meaningful progress in surgical education.

A nationwide audit

To address this, the research quantified the incidence and nature of non-technical errors linked to patient death. We conducted a retrospective audit using data from the Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality (ANZASM), covering all surgical mortalities in Australia (excluding New South Wales) from 2012–2019.

Using a validated assessment tool developed by our team, we analysed cases flagged with adverse events or concerns to identify and characterise non-technical errors contributing to mortality.

Key findings and future directions

Our study successfully identified the frequency and characteristics of fatal non-technical errors, including factors associated with their occurrence. These insights will help guide future initiatives to improve non-technical skills in surgical practice.

Motivation behind the research

Led by Professor Guy Maddern, our group has long focused on non-technical skills. At the start of my PhD, I joined a study exploring coaching methods to improve these skills in rural hospitals. Before committing, I sought to understand the true impact of non-technical failures and found a major gap in the literature.

This study was born from the need to understand not just how to improve non-technical skills, but why and when they fail and what that means for patient outcomes.