In 2012, Mr Philip Charlesworth was awarded a Robotic Preceptorship with Professor Indebir Gill and his robotic surgical team at the University of Southern California Institute of Urology, Los Angeles, California, USA. Professor Inderbir Gill, a world renowned surgeon and key developer of the latest robotic surgical reconstructive techniques. Whilst Mr Philip Charlesworth received training from Professor Gill and watched on as he performed a large number complex surgeries for prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer. He also had the opportunity to travel with Professor Inderber Gill, and his expert surgical team, to Regina Elena Hospital, Rome, to assist in performing 16 robotic cystectomies with neobladder formation in only 4 days, helping them with the surgery and the live streaming commentaries, which were watched around the world.
Due to its complexity, cystectomy for bladder cancer is considered one of the most difficult areas of urological surgery, and this has historically been managed by the most experienced surgeons. Thanks to his training with TUF, Mr Philip Charlesworth has seen an acceleration in his experience so that now he is the lead complex cancer & reconstructive robotic surgeon for his region, despite his relatively young age. Thanks to this specific TUF funded training, pelvic cancer and reconstructive surgery in this region has very quickly moved from being performed via predominantly traditional open surgery to being done entirely robotically.
“Our surgery is now performed centrally and robotically and this has led to a massive improvement in outcomes for our patients with decreasing complication and length of stay rates. We’re also increasingly able to ensure patients rapidly regain the quality of life to close to what it was before the operation, through the advancements we have made over the past few years.
“As well as striving to offer my patients the best results, I have also worked very hard to share the skills I have acquired through my TUF sponsored training with the other excellent surgeons I work with both in the UK and across the world.”
