James Aitken recently retired from clinical practice as a consultant colorectal surgeon at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. He is the Clinical Director of the Western Australian Audit of Surgical Mortality, part of the Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality. He was the chair of the Australian and New Zealand Emergency Laparotomy Audit Working Group and now chair of its Management Committee. He was a member of the Commission’s Emergency Laparotomy Clinical Care Standard Topic Working Party.