There's a sound that gets you before you're ready for it.

It's a breath, a low note, almost a throat-clearing. And then you hear it. The wail of the bagpipes fills the room, moves up through the floor, through the chest, and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up before your brain has had a chance to decide how it feels about any of this.

It doesn't matter whether you're Scottish. It doesn't matter whether you've heard one before. Something in you responds before you can think about it.

That's how DFTB26 opened.

And then a herd of plush highland coos to set the tone perfectly.

Because if you're going to host a conference in Glasgow, you might as well commit.

DFTB26 is done. And I'm still processing it.

For me, this one was personal in ways I hadn't quite anticipated.

It had been more than three years since I'd been back to the UK. Three years is long enough to wonder whether things will feel different when you return.

They did. But in a good way.

There's a peculiar moment that happens at DFTB gatherings. The moment you finally meet, in person, someone you've only ever known through a thread, a comment, a shared interest across a screen. When they turn out to be exactly as thoughtful, as curious, as generous as you'd hoped.

Glasgow had that in abundance.

Dennis Ren. Spyros Karageorgos. Jess Morgan.

People I'd admired from a distance, suddenly in the same room. It's one of those things that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it. Completely recognisable to anyone who has.

And in between?

Outside, the city was doing its own thing.

Metallica.
Lost football matches.
Sunshine that you'd never expect in Glasgow

Inside, something else.

The conversations that run long over the coffee break.
The table of strangers at dinner becomes something closer to colleagues.
The moment someone says "I've been thinking about something you wrote" and you end up planning something together neither of you had considered an hour before.

Those things don't make the programme. They're often what people remember most.

The science was excellent.

Damon Shorter's The Rise of the Microbiome was a stand-out talk. It challenged our assumptions about antibiotics and raised questions that need further probing, at a time when the pressure to prescribe quickly has never felt greater. The kind of session that doesn't just teach you something. It might just change the way you treat every patient encounter.

And then there was Bubble Wrap, live.

Victoria Monnelly on neonates.
Sarah McNab on general paediatrics.
Our own Vicki Currie on paediatric emergency medicine.

Between them, fifteen papers (plus one) that you may have missed. Curated, contextualised, and delivered without filler. Ninety minutes that reminded you that keeping up with the literature doesn't have to feel like a chore.

But Glasgow wasn't only about the science.

Some of the most memorable moments came from the sessions on the art of medicine.

Liz Herrieven reminded us that the specific words we choose can harm or heal. Not occasionally. Every time. Joe Machta made the case for clarity and honesty, even when it feels hard, because real empowerment for our young patients starts with telling them the truth.

And then there were the sessions that went somewhere else entirely.

Dennis Ren reminded us that there is more to life than draping a stethoscope around your neck and going to work. Your identity is more than doctor, nurse, or paramedic. It was a challenge as much as a reminder.

It's one thing to be told you are more than your job. It's another to be asked what happens when that job is gone.

Jess Morgan closed the conference with a keynote that took that idea and ran with it. What happens when you lose that identity? When the thing you've built your sense of self around is taken away, or steps back, or changes shape? It was the kind of question that followed people out of the room.

If you were there, you'll know exactly what we mean.

What did you hear that might change the way you think? What question are you still sitting with?

If you weren't there, you haven't quite missed out.

Virtual access to all the talks from DFTB26 is available at dftb26.com.

The microbiome. The antibiotic assumptions. The words that harm or heal. The identity you carry into work, and what happens when it shifts.

👉 Register for virtual access at dftb26.com​

Next year, we'll be back in Australia.

Perth, 23rd–25th August 2027.

If you haven't already started the conversation with your department about leave, now is a good time to begin.

Thank you to everyone who came. To everyone who spoke, volunteered, organised, and showed up.

And to the community that makes this worth doing. Year after year, city after city.

See you in Perth.