Name: The rise of robotic surgery
Start: 2026-05-13T20:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-05-13T21:00:00+10:00
Location: Hickens Hotel

Discover how robotic surgery is transforming theatres, enabling safer, less invasive and more personalised care for patients and clinicians.
About this Event

Talk Description
Step inside the operating theatre of tomorrow with Professor Ben Dixon and Dr Renu Eapen. Discover how robotics, precision imaging and advanced surgical design are redefining what’s possible—from less invasive tumour removal to safer, more personalised procedures. Learn how emerging technologies are being integrated into real-world clinical practice, and what this means for patients, clinicians and the health system. Join us for an eye opening conversation about the future of surgery—where human expertise and intelligent machines work hand in hand to improve outcomes and save lives.
Bios

Professor Ben Dixon is the Garnett Passe & Rodney Williams Professor of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Melbourne and the Director of ENT Head & Neck Surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is the Head & Neck Research and Education Lead for the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance. Prof Dixon has a PhD in surgeon-computer interface design and continues research into the integration of technology into the operating theatre. His areas of expertise and clinical research include Head & Neck and Skull Base Malignancy, including combining robotic and endoscopic surgical management with open techniques.

Dr Renu Eapen is a Consultant Urologist in the Genitourinary Oncology service at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, with appointments at the Austin Hospital and the Olivia Newton John Cancer Centre. She completed urology training with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2014 before undertaking research in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern. Dr Eapen then completed a robotics and uro oncology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, and is trained in open, laparoscopic and robotic cancer surgery. Renu is co host of GU Cast, a podcast on Genitourinary Oncology followed by clinicians, patients and the public worldwide.