Dr Craig S. Johnson

Dr Johnson is a both a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He has been performing minimally invasive colon surgery since 1992. Since 2010 his practice has focused on robotic colon and rectal surgery. Dr Johnson heads one of eight USA colorectal case observation training centres at Oklahoma Surgical Hospital. He is actively involved in teaching groups and individual surgeons in robotic colon and rectal surgery. In collaboration with nine other American surgeons, Dr Johnson recently published a study, ‘Robotic Rectal Cancer Resection: A Retrospective Multicenter Analysis’, in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Dr Stephen Pillinger

Dr Pillinger is a Consultant Colon and Rectal Surgeon, having commenced Consultant practice in 2005. His major focus is benign and malignant colorectal pathology, with particular expertise in minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic colorectal surgery, Robotic Transanal Minimally Invasive Surgery (rTAMIS) and diagnostic and interventional colonoscopy. He trained in robotic surgery in the US and South Korea. In partnership with A/Prof Lynch, Dr Pillinger runs Australian Robotic Colorectal Surgery (ARCS) at the Sydney Adventist Hospital. ARCS is the busiest and most experienced robotic colorectal surgery practice in Australasia and welcomes both local and international surgeons visiting to learn robotic surgery. ARCS hosts a variety of surgeon-led da Vinci courses, focusing on left- and right-sided resections using da Vinci advanced technology. The core aim of ARCS is to deliver expert robotic and laparoscopic surgical care.

Associate Professor Craig Lynch

A/Prof Lynch is a Colorectal Surgeon and partner in ARCS, practicing at the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Sydney and the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. He has extensive experience managing Colorectal Cancer, using both laparoscopic and robotic surgery and was the first to perform robotic colorectal surgery in Australasia in 2009. Since then he has proctored many other colorectal surgeons around Australia, run Robotic Workshops with live operating and taught at courses at the da Vinci Training Centre in Sydney and the Australian Medical Robotics Academy in Melbourne.

Associate Professor Andrew Stevenson

A/Prof Stevenson completed his post-fellowship training in colorectal surgery at Royal Brisbane and Royal Prince Alfred hospitals in the mid 1990s. Along with the team in Brisbane, he has conducted over 100 workshops on minimally invasive techniques and is Chairman-Elect for the CSSANZ Training Board of Colorectal Surgery. A/Prof Stevenson began using robotics in colorectal surgery in 2009. He performed the first reported robotic male pelvic exenteration in the southern hemisphere and in combination with colleagues in Korea, published the first case series. In 2013 he began using transanal TME for benign and malignant rectal resections and visited Prof. Antonio Lacy in 2014 to further his knowledge of the technique.

A/Prof Stevenson is now Head of Colorectal Surgery at Royal Brisbane Hospital and Associate Professor of Colorectal Surgery at University of Queensland.

Mr Satish Warrier

A Colorectal Surgeon at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Alfred Health, Melbourne, Mr Warrier graduated from the University of NSW in 2002 with MBBS/Bsc (Medical) and qualified as a General Surgeon in Victoria in 2009. He was an early adopter of complex colorectal work including robotic right hemicolectomies, CME and CVL, retroperitoneal lymph node clearances and pelvic sidewall clearances. Mr Warrier is passionate about surgical training, with a particular interest in the introduction of new technology. He is the current Chair of General Surgical Training in Victoria and has published over 115 peer-reviewed articles, and also reviews for many general surgical journals including BJS.

Mr Darren Tonkin

An experienced colorectal surgeon trained in the full range of open, laparoscopic and robotic techniques Mr Tonkin returned from the UK in 2007, having completed the final year of his Colorectal Fellowship at St Marks Hospital in London, to take up a consultant position both in private practice and on the Colorectal Unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
He has interests in robotic, laparoscopic and open colorectal surgery; pouch surgery for inflammatory bowel disease and polyposis; the surgical management of intestinal failure and enterocutaneous fistula; laparoscopic and open hernia repair; and complex abdominal wall reconstruction techniques.

Mr Chris McDonald

Prior to commencing a career in medicine Mr McDonald worked in the Royal Australian Air Force and completed a nursing degree, graduating with first class honours in 2000. In 2005 he completed a medical degree at the University of Sydney, before relocating to Adelaide to intern at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Having passed his Fellowship in General Surgery in 2012 he went on to complete further colorectal subspecialty training at the Lyell McEwin Hospital with a second year at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as the Colorectal Laparoscopic Fellow. During this training he completed a master’s degree in Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Adelaide, undertaking training on the da Vinci system.

In November 2015 he travelled to Atlanta, Georgia to complete this training. He now practices as a General Surgeon with a special interest in Colorectal and Robotic Surgery.

Professor Gyu-Seog Choi

Prof Choi graduated from the Kyungpook National University School of Medicine and completed his surgical residency at Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, Korea. He received his Ph.D. at the same university and pursued a research fellowship for cancer genetics at Cancer Research UK in Oxford. After returning to Korea, Prof Choi established a Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) training and research centre at Kyungpook National University Hospital. He has pioneered minimally invasive surgery in Korea, having performed over 2000 laparoscopic and 100 robotic colorectal surgeries. An active member of many domestic and international scientific societies, he has contributed 60 papers in surgery and oncology. Hi achievements have afforded him numeral awards including the Karl-Storz Award from EAES. Prof Chio currently serves as Professor and Head of Colorectal Surgery at Kyungpook. His main interests are MIS and robotic surgery for colorectal cancer and cancer immunogenetics.