Database and registries lead
Liam Horgan is a laparoscopic upper gastro-intestinal surgeon working in Northumbria Healthcare Trust with a special interest in day case hernia and gallbladder surgery.
Liam qualified from University College, Cork in 1985. He moved to NE Thames for his higher surgical training and was a research fellow at the Royal Free Hospital. London. He joined Northumbria Healthcare NHSFT as their first dedicated Laparoscopic Surgeon in 1999.
He formed the NUGITS group in 2000 and is its Director. The NUGITS group is one of the leading teams of laparoscopic surgeons in the UK and is recognised as a centre of excellence in Teaching and Training. The NUGITS group are also recognised as a leading unit in the UK by the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement in day case laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. NUGITS was a finalist in the Hospital Doctor of the Year Awards 2006.
Liam was a council member of the British Association of Day Surgery and is a Clinical Lecturer in Surgery for the Medical School, Newcastle. He was the first national tutor in patient safety for theatre teams at the Royal College of Surgeons in England.
His main interests include all forms of hernia, simple to complex recurrent incisional hernias, laparoscopic gallbladder and bile duct surgery, laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery, emergency laparoscopic surgery, laparoscopic training and proctoring, human factors and patient safety and operating theatre efficiency. He has spoken at meetings nationally and internationally and published on these areas.
Liam has been a board member of the British Hernia Society since 2014, organised the 2016 Newcastle Hernia Conference, and was the president of our society from 2018 to 2020. His main focus during his time as president was laying the groundwork for a national UK BHS hernia registry, collaboration with our Irish colleagues, increasing the diversity of the board and increasing the membership of the society. He is continuing his work for the society as the chair of the BHS Registry Sub-committee. He also represents the BHS as the UK representative on the Chapters Committee of the EHS.
He also leads a long term voluntary commitment to support general surgery and hernia surgery and has established a laparoscopic training program and service provision in Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Moshi, Tanzania since 2003. Liam and his team won the prestigious BMJ Surgical Team of the Year 2014 for this work.