Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Guy Slater has received an award from the American College of Surgeons in recognition of his work developing the latest version of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course.

Delivered by the Royal College of Surgeons, the ATLS course has trained over 1 million clinicians across the world to care for patients with life-threatening injuries.

It is taught by surgeons and doctors who specialise in emergency medicine, anaesthetics and other fields, and a new edition of the course is launched every four years, to ensure clinicians learn the very latest skills and techniques in life support.

The latest edition of the course (its 11th) ran for the first time in the UK last year at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, under the direction of Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Guy Slater, who is Chair and Clinical Lead for Advanced Trauma Life Support UK for the Royal College of Surgeons in England.

He has been an ATLS instructor since 1999 and has served as Chair of the UK Steering Group for the past three years.

In recognition of his work on the 11th edition of the course, the American College of Surgeons’ Advanced Trauma Life Support Steering Committee have awarded Mr Slater their International Meritorious Award, describing the newly-released edition as “more relevant and impactful than ever before”.

The award is presented to “recognise exceptional individuals for their innovative contributions and sustained commitment to the quality and international growth of the ATLS program.”

He was presented with the award by the Chicago Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons’ Global Symposium in Alabama last week.

Speaking after the presentation, Mr Slater said: “I was surprised and delighted to receive this award; it is a well-deserved accolade for everyone involved in the ATLS course. The course is developed by a global network of leaders in trauma care and delivered by a large number of expert colleagues, and could not run without their support.”