BOTA Annual Congress 2026

This year's BOTA Congress will take place at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9DW.

Congress, this year, will focus on the concept of the 'surgical athlete' - applying high performance principles from the world of sport to surgical training. With talks and workshops from Prof Steve Yule and Dr Calum Arthur, from the SaberLab and from Dr Kate Ella, orthopaedic surgeon turned health coach, we'll explore how cognitive load, mindset, nutrition and sleep impact on learning and performance. We will also dig deeper into wellbeing in training, looking at incivility, active bystanding, clinical debriefing, and how to ease the transition of returning to work after time away. 

As always, there will also be a host of high yield sessions run by specialty societies including BASK, BHS, BLRS, BOFAS, BSCOS, BSSH and OTS, plus work on fundamental non-technical skills, including moving last year's oversubscribed leadership pre-Congress course into the main programme! We will also provide updates on training issues, hold the BOTA AGM and delve into the hot topics of the day, including sustainable practice, AI and the intersection of surgery with healthcare ethics and law.