Simon Paterson-Brown was a Consultant General Surgeon in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, UK, between January 1994 and March 2021. His main sub-specialty interest was upper GI surgery with a particular interest in the management of patients with benign and malignant oesophago-gastric disorders and benign biliary disease. He also had an additional interest in emergency surgery and trauma as well as the re-structuring of surgical services. Simon has also worked over the last few years in remote and rural hospitals in Scotland, carrying out emergency surgery, endoscopy, and clinics. He continues to be involved in teaching post-graduate students at Edinburgh University as an Honorary Senior Lecturer, in addition to running training courses for surgeons and surgical teams for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Simon is the co-editor for the Companion to Surgical Practice series (now in its 6th edition) and the Year One program director for the Edinburgh Surgery Online MSc course in Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors.