Biography

A 4th-generation New Zealander by descent, I moved to Australia with my family when I was three. We lived for several years in Brisbane, the UK and Canberra, where I finished Year 12.  At that time, Canberra had no medical school, so I came to Adelaide to study medicine at Flinders University.    

After graduating with Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (‘BMBS’) from Flinders in 1989, I did my internship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where I then began surgical training.  My training in General Surgery was in South Australia and Queensland, which I completed in 2004.  Along the way I also undertook a 4-year, full-time medical research degree, culminating in being awarded a Doctorate of Medicine (‘MD’) by the University of Adelaide.  (An MD in Adelaide was then purely a post-graduate research degree, but it has since completely changed - it now means the equivalent of BMBS).  

Since completing my training, I’ve enjoyed both public and private practice in General Surgery, based in southern Adelaide.  I also co-wrote and edited a surgical textbook, and had the good fortune to have Cambridge University Press publish it.  

In recent years I’ve developed an interest in the emerging sub-specialty of Abdominal Wall Reconstruction, and have attended practical courses and conferences specifically on this topic in Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, London and Cambridge, UK.   

Nevertheless I’ve always liked the broad nature of General Surgery, and continue to do so.  

In my view, it’s important for patients to be able to discuss their condition with their doctor.  I believe that it’s helpful to advise patients about different treatment options, and which one may be best in their individual case, which isn’t always necessarily a procedure.  Often, there is more than one reasonable treatment option, and I encourage patients to consider those options, and discuss them with friends and family, rather than feel that they have to make hasty decisions at the time of the consultation.  

Outside of surgery, I like spending time with my wife and children; other interests include history, and music of most genres.   

Memberships  

Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 

The College (and government legislation) requires Fellows to continue their surgical education throughout their career. 


Member, British Hernia Society

Member, Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA) 

Accredited in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and colonoscopy.  To be accredited in endoscopy or colonoscopy by GESA requires proof of satisfactory, supervised training, consisting of several hundred procedures.  The lower part of the bowel - the colon - longer and more tortuous than the upper part of the bowel, so colonoscopy is usually more technically difficult than endoscopy.  Therefore, accreditation in colonoscopy requires certain quality markers to be met. The two major indicators of quality in colonoscopy are Caecal Intubation Rate, and Adenoma Detection Rate.   

Quality Indicators

(a) Caecal intubation Rate

Because the lower part of the bowel is long and tortuous, it can be technically difficult to examine it completely.  GESA accreditation therefore requires that a colonoscopist is consistently able to examine the entire colon, which is shown by reaching the uppermost part of the colon (the caecum).  How frequently an individual colonoscopist reaches the caecum is known as his or her ‘Caecal Intubation Rate’ (CIR).  Continued GESA accreditation requires a CIR of at least 95%.  My personal CIR is currently over 98%.  

(b) Adenoma Detection Rate

One of the commonest reasons for people to have a colonoscopy is to find and remove pre-cancerous growths (adenoma polyps) in the colon.  How successful an individual colonoscopist is at doing this, is known as his or her Adenoma Detection Rate (ADR).   ADR has a precise and rather detailed definition, but essentially, it simply means the number of patients in whom at least one adenoma was detected and removed (and proven by histological examination) as a percentage of the total number of colonoscopies done.  

It’s essentially impossible to have an ADR of 100%, simply because many people having a colonoscopy, have zero adenomas: obviously, it's not possible to find and remove adenomas from a person who doesn't have any!  ADR may also vary somewhat from one proceduralist to another, depending on the nature of his or her practice.  Nevertheless, continued GESA accreditation requires that a colonoscopist has an ADR of 25% or more.  For what it's worth, my personal ADR is currently 62%.