RoboStart: 2025 - IMRA@ Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital

Ben is a consultant urological surgeon with a special interest in the minimally invasive treatments of prostatic diseases. He is the Guy’s & St Thomas’ MDM urological cancer and clinical robotics lead, a UK robotic surgery mentor and robotic fellowship director. He trained at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, The Royal Marsden Hospital and with Professor Tony Costello at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he was awarded the prestigious Rowan Nicks Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was the British Association of Urology (BAUS) Oncology Section Chairman 2018-20 and in 2019 was awarded the BAUS Golden Cystoscope for contributions to British urology within 10 years of consultant appointment. He is an RSM urology section committee member and was secretary 2019-20.   He has learnt both laparoscopic and robotic surgical approaches and performed the first randomised trial of telerobotics between Guy’s and Johns Hopkins Hospitals, in 2002. This formed part of his Master of Surgery thesis on robotic surgery and telemedicine. Ben has been associate editor of the BJUI 2012-2020, with over 260 peer-reviewed publications (h index 51), 4 textbooks, and 25 book chapters on minimally invasive and robotic urological techniques. He has performed over 1300 robotic radical prostatectomies and over 1400 robotic upper tract procedures including 760 robotic partial nephrectomies and also performs holmium laser prostatectomy (HoLEP) with an experience of over 1200 cases. He has also helped to develop both the robotic cystectomy and robotic partial nephrectomy programmes at Guy’s Hospital and is the highest volume surgeon for both robotic partial nephrectomy and upper tract robotics in the UK. He has pioneered supine robotic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for testicular cancer with Archie Fernando as the first uk unit to perform this complex surgery. His current research interests are in robotic surgery training, trans-perineal template biopsy techniques, active surveillance of low risk prostate cancer, sentinel node techniques and 3D modelling development in robotic surgery. Ben is a Trustee of The Urology Foundation Charity, for whom he regularly lectures, and is fortunate to have a very supportive surgical wife and three energetic boys.

Nicholas Raison is a consultant urological surgeon at The London Clinic and NHS King’s College Hospital and associate professor (clinical senior lecturer) at King’s College London. Mr Raison specialises in the treatment of benign bladder dysfunction and neuro-urological disease in addition to his general urological practice. Mr Raison qualified from Imperial College School of Medicine then completed his surgical and specialist urological training in the prestigious London deanery. This was followed by a subspecialist fellowship at Guy’s Hospital, London. In addition to his clinical training, Mr Raison a completed PhD at King’s College London; his final thesis was nominated for the outstanding thesis prize. Mr Raison has also completed postgraduate training in education leading to the fellowship of the higher education academy (FHEA). Mr Raison remains a highly active clinical researcher publishing widely in addition to regularly being invited to speak at national and international scientific meetings. Mr Raison is an expert in the treatment of benign bladder dysfunction including prostate disease and incontinence. He also has a specialist interest in the treatment of recurrent urinary tract infection and bladder pain. Additionally, Mr Raison is highly experienced in the management of general urological conditions including the diagnosis and management of prostate and bladder cancer and the treatment kidney stone disease. Mr Raison offers a wide variety of minimally surgical options to tailor the treatment to his patients’ requirements.