Ben Lamb, then Urology trainee, invites Thomas Pinkey from the West Midlands General Surgery Research Collaborative to present their work at the annual British Urology Conference (BAUS).
Veeru Kasivisvanathan, inspired by their work aims to create a research collaborative in Urology. He spends 6 months with the London Surgical Research Group (LSRG), the West Midlands Group and the Neurosurgical Research Collaborative understanding the inner workings and secrets to success.
Veeru forms the founding principles of the research collaborative and gains the support and interest of the urological community, BAUS (Mark Speakman) and the Royal College of Surgeons (Professor Mark Emberton, Professor Robert Pickard)
Veeru invites Ben to join as the new co-chair and Taimur Shah to join as the Webmaster and Treasurer. The initial advisory board consisted of Mark Emberton, Hashim Ahmed, Robert Pickard, Graeme MacLennan and Ben Challacombe.
The team considered a variety of names with the key themes: being British-based, urological and trainee-led. The winner was BURST (British Urology Researchers in Surgical Training) Research Collaborative.
At a similar time, other British urologists including Dan Wood and Daron Smith, were involved in developing the acronym BURST, for the BAUS trainee research session.
The committee thought it would be fitting to use the existing name BURST, which people would be familiar with and add the words “Research Collaborative”. It has since stuck. The BURST annual session at BAUS continues to be a focal point for our gatherings and ideas and BURST are grateful to BAUS’ continued support.
BURST retains its British core, but has become an international organisation with a wide reach, working with over 500 collaborators from around the world. The first large international cohort study launched by BURST, was the MIMIC study. This established the BURST network and led to the formation of a number of national and international collaborations. It has developed into a prize-winning collaborative that has presented work around the world and is having impact on urological research and practice. The collaborative continues to grow from strength to strength and aims to deliver multicentre practice-changing observational and interventional research that can improve patient care.