Prof. Remie is an oracle of animal science. For me, he achieves balancing the complexities of the many aspects of surgery, without overloading you with information, while adding warmth and a touch of humour in his delivery, along with the occasional well-placed anecdote. I have yet to meet anyone with such a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of anatomy and surgery combined with the experience of in vivo research. His teaching style is direct, yet never condescending, and he is a master of patience, which means you always get the answer you need to whichever question you might want to ask about a technique you are learning. Moreover, not only is Prof. Remie a font of knowledge, but he is also eager to provide pertinent research papers and equipment/consumable catalogues for reading around the techniques and establishing your own surgical setup.
Throughout the course, Prof. Remie was always quick to demonstrate his care for the animals, in terms of adequate anaesthesia, analgesia and asepsis, as well as the benefits of establishing good surgical technique to minimise unnecessary injury and reduce the number of animals required to obtain results for one’s research.
One of Prof. Remie’s tenets is to be goal-oriented: once I had exhausted the queries I had about the ins and outs of the techniques I was learning, it was possible, in the latter stages of the course to fully appreciate the benefits of being focused on your surgical objective.
I was glad to have chosen the 5-day course option as this allowed me to get a handle on the core course techniques as well as have a good opportunity to become confident with my custom program of blood pressure telemetry probe implantation and LAD ligation.
I left the course with more than I had anticipated; learning extra skills and feeling confident in knowing what I needed to do to establish the techniques back in my lab. At the end of the last day I felt exhilarated that I had been able to participate in such an outstanding surgical training course, but also saddened that, the next morning, I would not be returning to learning something new and exciting with Prof. Remie.
