USANZ NSW Section Meeting 2019

Speakers

Professor Helen E. O'Connell

Professor Helen O’Connell is an academic Urologist based in Melbourne. She is the Director of Surgery and Head of Urology at Western health. Completing her Urological training in 1994 she became Australia’s first female Urologist. She was Fellowship trained after that in Houston and became a leader in field of clinical urology, urodynamics and lower urinary tract reconstruction, particular in women. Her Doctorate, (Melbourne University 2005) was in the study of female urogenital anatomy, studies for which she has international renown. She has been Principal investigator on a large number of clinical trials for drugs and devices for overactive bladder, stress incontinence in men and women and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Her current research interests are female urethral science, minimally invasive surgical approaches to problematic transvaginal mesh, stimulated transplanted smooth muscle neo-sphincters and shared care models of treatment for men with prostate cancer, and big data on incontinence in men and women. She is the Chair of the forthcoming International Continence Society meeting Melbourne 2021. She has a Master of Medicine in Women’s Health, Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has had long running directorships for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand. She became a Full Professor at the University of Melbourne, Department of Surgery in 2013.

Professor Klaus-Martin Schulte

Professor Klaus-Martin Schulte, MD, FRCS, FRACS is the Chair of Surgery at the Australian National University. He completed training in General and Visceral Surgery at the University Clinic of Duesseldorf in Germany, where his post-fellowship training also provided him with senior expertise in endocrine surgery. In 2004, he became a Consultant in General and Endocrine Surgery and Lead Clinician of Endocrine Surgery at King’s College Hospital London. From 2006-2012 he also was Lead Clinician for Emergency General and Major Trauma Surgery at King’s Level I trauma centre. In 2015, he took up a new role as Chair of Surgery at ANU, providing academic leadership for 15 academic surgical departments. Schulte’s research interest has been imprinted by his experimental thesis in metabolism of 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone in Zucker rats. From there, he went to study growth regulation of endocrine cells and organs, and some current work is focused on mass spectrometry for urinary profiling of steroid metabolites in adrenal disease. The main thrust of research now is in identification of novel therapy pathways to target DNA repair defects for the cure of cancer at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. Schulte is extensively published, member of 10 professional organisations, member of editorial boards, reviewer for major journals, and has received senior awards from National surgical and other organisations.

Professor Howard Gurney

Professor Howard Gurney is the Director of Clinical Trials for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University and Senior Staff Specialist in Medical Oncology at Westmead Hospital.

Dr Gurney has a firm background in clinical research and has subspecialty interests in uro-genital cancers including prostate, bladder, testis and kidney cancer.

He has been the principal investigator for over 100 clinical trials and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals and book chapters. Current research interests include the pharmacogenomics and therapeutic monitoring of chemotherapy and targeted therapies and he has published widely in this area. He is regarded as a leading authority on mechanisms for safe dosing of anticancer agents and has held research grants and has written a number of invited editorials on these topics.

Professor Mohamed Khadra AO

Professor Mohamed Khadra is Professor of Surgery at the University of Sydney, Clinical Director of Surgery and Director of Strategy and Innovation at Nepean Hospital. He has served in senior university management and academic positions in Australia and Internationally including Head of Surgery at the University of Sydney, Inaugural Chair and Head of Surgery at the Australian National University, Pro Vice Chancellor for Health, Design and Science at the University of Canberra, Professor and Head of the School of Rural Health for the University of New South Wales and Founder of the Institute of Technology Australia, a higher education provider with a social justice mission to take quality education to students in developing countries. Professor Khadra has served on a number of corporate and University boards.

Professor Khadra has degrees in medicine, computing, education and a doctorate in the neurophysiology of the bladder. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian Collect of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Professor Howard Lau

Howard Lau has a special interest in complex renal surgery particularly in the field of minimally invasive approach. He is regarded by his peers as a pioneer in Laparoscopic Renal Surgery having performed a series of firsts in Australia, including laparoscopic radical and partial nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma and more recently, robotic renal transplant. He has written chapters, published journals as well as lectured and performed live surgeries in many different countries. He is a Conjoint Professor of Surgery at Western Sydney University.

Professor Phillip Stricker AO

Professor Phillip Stricker is Chairman of the Urology Department at St Vincent’s Campus Sydney, the Director of the St Vincent’s Prostate Cancer Centre Sydney, Professor at UTS & UWS, Conjoint Associate Professor in Surgery at the University of New South Wales and Sydney University, Director of the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre – NSW at The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and was an inaugural Director on the national board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

He has one of the largest experiences in open and robotic prostate cancer surgery, brachytherapy, active surveillance and focal therapy in Australasia. He has over 150 peer reviewed publications and currently has a major interest in imaging with MRI and PET scanning, focal therapy and multidisciplinary approach to advanced prostate cancer.

Professor Henry Woo

Henry Woo is a urological surgeon specialised in treating prostate disease. He is the Director of Uro-Oncology and Professor of Robotic Cancer Surgery at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He is also Professor of Surgery at the Sydney Adventist Hospital Clinical School of the University of Sydney. At the Sydney Adventist Hospital, he serves as Head of the Department of Urology and Deputy Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee. He is a Board Director of the Australian and New Zealand Uro-genital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) as well as the Australasian Urological Foundation (AUF). He serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases and is a Consulting Editor for the BJUI. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of European Urology, Prostate International, World Journal of Men’s Health, Asian Journal of Urology and World Journal of Urology. He has published extensively with over 170 peer reviewed manuscripts and has been regularly invited to lecture, proctor and perform surgery internationally. He is the Scientific Chair for the forthcoming Urological Association of Asia Congress to be held in Sydney in 2021.

Associate Professor Peter Chin

Peter Chin is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong. He was involved in the first-in-human trials of the Urolift as well as many subsequent studies of the device. He is a practicing urologist with interests in Robotic surgery, Prosthetic surgery, Uro-Oncology, Varicoceles, LUTS management and medical device evaluation.

Associate Professor Prem Rashid

A/Professor Prem Rashid is a clinical urologist with an academic interest in surgical education. He is the author of several patient guide books on urological conditions & multiple peer reviewed publications.

He graduated MBBS(WA) - 1987, completing his PhD(WA) - 1995 and FRACS(Urol) - 1997.

He was Chair, Board of Urology, RACS (2012-14) and completed his Doctor of Clinical Surgery (Syd) in surgical education (2016). He has also been the Meeting Chair of the 2016 USANZ ASM and is a Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary).

He is currently;
• Vice-President, USANZ
• Head of Urology, Port Macquarie Base Hospital.
• Conjoint Associate Professor, University of New South Wales.
• Member, Court of Examiners, RACS• Advisor & Examiner, Reference Group, Programs in Surgical Education - Master of Surgical Education Program, University of Melbourne
• Fellow, Faculty of Surgical Trainers, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh
• Faculty Member of the Academy of Surgical Educators, RACS• Member of the Section of Academic Surgery, RACS

Associate Professor Celi Varol

Associate Professor Celi Varol is a clinical associate Professor at Macquarie and Sydney University. He completed his Urology training in 2001 in Sydney and did a double Fellowship in Reconstructive Uro-Oncology in Switzerland and Germany. His Fellowship years were spent under the tutorage Professors Studer and Stolzenberg learning the art of reconstructive pelvic and retroperitoneal oncology and laparoscopy.

As the former head of Urology he started a Masters in Surgery (Urology) and Masters in Advanced Surgery (UroOncology) program at Macquarie University. During his term he set up the first MRI guided Prostate biopsy unit at Macquarie University Hospital in 2013 and later the Australian trial Centre for “In-Bore MRI guided focal laser therapy for Prostate Cancer“ in 2014-2017. His current interests are in the Medtech start up company Medlogical Innovations which was incorporated in 2018. Medlogical Innovations is in the process of developing ProFocal-RxTM, a Focal Laser Therapy system for prostate Cancer. Integrating robotic guidance of MRI/US fusion, together with ProFocal-Rx, the system is designed for “Robot guided Focal Laser Therapy” for targeting and treating clinical localized prostate cancer.

Dr Kieran Hart

Dr Kieran Hart is an Australian trained urologist based in Canberra who undertook a fellowship in Laparoscopic Uro-Oncology and Male-Female Gender Reassignment surgery at Charing Cross Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital within the Imperial College, London, UK. He has since performed more than a dozen male-female gender affirmation surgeries on local and interstate patients. Currently, he is the only urologist with this specific sub-specialist fellowship qualification and is only one of three surgeons offering this operation in Australia.

Dr Andrew Mitchell

Dr Andrew WS Mitchell MBBS FRACS
Director Territory Wide Surgical Services ACT Health
Administrator of Urology Canberra Hospital
Director of Ophthalmology Canberra Hospital
Previously Director of Perioperative Care Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Director of Surgery Osborne Park Hospital
Chairman of Regional Trainee General Surgery WA

Dr Rohit Tamhane

Dr Rohit Tamhane attained his medical degree at the University of Sydney before completing his specialist training at The Canberra Hospital. Rohit went on to complete an Interventional Radiology Fellowship in Canberra. He subsequently completed a second fellowship in Body Intervention at The University of Calgary, Canada and was a visiting fellow in body MRI at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He has a particular interest in Interventional oncology, oncological imaging and abdominal and pelvis MRI.

Dr Audrey Wang

Dr Audrey Wang is a functional urologist with special interests in the assessment and treatment of urinary incontinence, bladder dysfunction and pelvic organ prolapse.

Dr James Wong

Reconstructive Urologist since the early '90s, after completing a fellowship in the UK under Prof Turner-Warwick. He has been actively involved in national and international presentations throughout his career and take pride in teaching and encourage younger fellows in taking up this sub-specialty.

Dr Elizabeth Dally

Elizabeth completed her urological training in NSW before undertaking a fellowship in paediatric urology and then a masters of advanced surgery focused on minimally invasive surgery and functional urology at Macquarie University. She now works at South Coast Urology in Wollongong and at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Sydney and specialises in minimally invasive surgery, female and functional urology and paediatric urology.