4.95

Mr Ben Challacombe, Consultant Urological Surgeon, currently works within the Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Trust. He is highly specialised in minimally invasive procedures for prostatic disease. He is the clinical lead for urological cancer and clinical robotics, his expertise in robotics is unparalleled, he is a mentor and fellowship director for robotic surgery.

Mr Challacombe has trained in many highly prestigious institutions including Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, and The Royal Marsden Hospital, as well as abroad at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, alongside Professor Tony Costello. He was later awarded the Rowan Nicks Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. His intensive training allowed him to learn both laparoscopic and robotic techniques, he later performed the first clinical trial of telerobotics in London and Oxford in 2002. This trial later became a section within his Master's thesis on robotic medicine and telemedicine. In 2019 he was awarded the BAUS Golden Cystoscope to the urologist who has made the most impact in the filed within 10 years oappointment.

Mr Challacombe has performed a vast range of procedures including over 1500 robotic radical prostatectomies, over 1400 robotic upper tract procedures (800) of which were robotic partial nephrectomies), and is also highly experienced in holmium laser prostatectomy (HoLEP) having performed over 1500. He remains one of the most sought after surgeons in the UK for robotic partial nephrectomy and upper tract robotics. Additionally, he helped to create the robotic cystectomy and robotic partial nephrectomy programmes at Guy's Hospital. He is one of only 2 surgeons in the UK to have used 3 different robotic systems clinically- da Vinci- Intutitive, Versius-CMR, and HUGO Medtronic.

As an Associate Professor at KCL, he is an active member of the research community, his current research interests focus on robotic surgery training, trans-perineal template biopsy and sentinel node techniques, active surveillance of low-risk prostate cancer, and haptic probe development in robotic surgery. He has also published over 310 articles in high-impact journals, has a publishing H-index of 60, written 4 books, and has contributed 30 chapters to textbooks. He had held positions for many associations including being Chairman and secretary for the British Association of Urology (BAUS) Oncology Section, secretry of the Royal Society of Medicine Urology Section, associate editor for BJUI journal, and is currently a trustee for The Urology Foundation Charity.