A taste of what's to come at the Imperial Festival as Professor Roger Kneebone and colleagues programme an evening at the Science Museum - News

Next month sees Imperial opening its doors to the public for the first ever Imperial Festival on 11 and 12 May. One of the main attractions will be the simulated surgery demonstrations run by Professor Roger Kneebone and his team, when visitors will get a chance to get up close and personal with the inside of an operating theatre, and try their hand at surgery with a pop-up anatomy lesson.

On Wednesday 29 February 2012, the public was given a taste of what Professor Kneebone and his colleagues will be bringing to the Festival. Natasha Martineau reports.

Surgeons and researchers from Imperial's Department of Surgery and Cancer put their extra leap year day to good use at the end of February as they programmed an evening of surgical-related performances, activities and entertainments as part of the Lates programme at the Science Museum. Lates take place on the last Wednesday of every month, and have become a popular London fixture for a younger adult audience looking for ways of combining science with a social life.

People strolling through the Museum shortly before the doors opened to the public might have been forgiven for thinking they were actually in a hospital. The long fluorescent-lit corridors - more usually crowded with overexcited school parties - were instead filled with staff in scrubs, putting the finishing touches to their interactive displays and performances for an evening of workshops, surgical simulations and public events about the science of surgery.

"The Lates evening was a joy," said Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum. "The whole Museum was buzzing and the medical teams from Imperial are superb communicators: expertise conveyed with real energy and humour."

Over 4,500 adults turned up to find out about surgery behind the scenes. Simulated operations and opportunities to try out new technologies ran alongside activities that might less often be associated with surgery: audiences could compare the stitching techniques of a boot maker and a bespoke tailor with the suturing required to stitch an intestine back together after major surgery. In another gallery, visitors were invited to contrast mind-mapping techniques between a London taxi driver using an A-Z to learn routes round London, and surgeons using the Anatomage interactive anatomy table to find their way around the human body.

"The Lates provided a fantastic opportunity to showcase work by Imperial's Department of Surgery and Cancer in the unique surroundings of London's Science Museum," said surgical educator Professor Roger Kneebone, who programmed the event using many of the technologies and techniques developed for training surgeons and medical teams to work better together. "Our team included over 100 surgeons, scientists and students, and there was a tremendous buzz throughout the evening. What struck me most was how fascinated everyone is by the world of surgery."

The Museum's collection of flying machines in the Flight gallery provided an unusual backdrop for a staging of the series of events that unfolds when someone suffers from a heart attack.Watch the video to see Dr Iqbal Malik, Honorary Senior Lecturer in the College's Department of Surgery and Cancer and a consultant cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, talk about how the surgical re-enactment not only raises awareness of surgical procedures, but also provides surgeons with an opportunity to learn more about communicating with patients.

The team has since played a leading role in the Body Zone at the Big Bang Fair where they engaged with a record-breaking 63,000 young visitors over the course of three days. You can catch them in action at the inaugural Imperial Festival on 11-12 May, and read more about their work in Cutting edge, on page 28 of issue 37 of the Imperial magazine. Professor Kneebone is giving his inaugural lecture on The art of surgery – encounters and connections on 23 May.