Sir Alfred Cuschieri (born 30 September 1938) is a Maltese-British surgeon and academic. He is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the development and clinical implementation of minimal access surgery, also known as key-hole surgery. He has been Professor of Surgery at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, since 2003 as well as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Institute of Medical Science and Technology at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee; . Abbreviated as ''Dund.'' for post-nominals. is a public university, public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a University college#United Kingdom, university college in 1881 with a donation ...

since 2008.

Career

Cuschieri obtained his medical degree from the

Royal University of Malta The University of Malta (, UM, formerly UOM) is a higher education institution in Malta. It offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, postgraduate master's degrees and postgraduate doctorates. It is a member of the European University Associatio ...

in 1961. Soon after graduation he left Malta for the United Kingdom to undertake further research into his areas of surgical and technological interest at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. At Liverpool, he rose to become a lecturer in the medical school and then, in 1974, to a

Personal Chair Academic ranks in the United Kingdom are the titles, relative seniority and responsibility of employees in universities. In general the country has three academic career pathways: one focused on research, one on teaching, and one that combines th ...

in Surgery. In 1976, Cuschieri moved to Scotland to join the

University of Dundee School of Medicine The University of Dundee School of Medicine is the school concerned with medical education and clinical research at the University of Dundee in Scotland. In 1967, Dundee's medical school became independent in its own right having started in 1889 ...

as Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Surgery and Molecular Oncology Department. It was while working at

Ninewells Hospital Ninewells Hospital is a large teaching hospital, based on the western edge of Dundee, Scotland. It is internationally renowned for introducing laparoscopic surgery to the UK as well as being a leading centre in developing fields such as the manag ...

in the city that he and his team first began researching the medical and technological basis for minimal access surgery. Cuschieri's team took advantage of, among other internal and external ergonomic developments, smaller cameras allowing insertion into the incision made in the skin; as a result of this progress the first minimally invasive surgery in the UK was carried out at Ninewells in 1987. A lack of appropriate training in this form of surgery, and instances of procedures going wrong even resulting in deaths, led to some concern and mistrust in the new techniques. As a result, training units were set up at hospitals and medical schools around the UK with one of the first designated in 1993 under Cuschieri's directorship. Cuschieri holds some fifty-eight patents for various surgical instruments and has been originally published around five hundred times in peer-reviewed journals. He became European Editor-in-Chief of ''

Surgical Endoscopy ''Surgical Endoscopy'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It is the official journal of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and the European Association for Endoscopic Surge ...

'' in 1992.

Honours and awards

*1961 Pfizer Prize *1973 Moynihan Prize,

Association of Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland is a British medical association founded in 1920 with the twin aims of the ''advancement of the science and art of surgery and the promotion of friendship amongst surgeons''. Association of Su ...

*1994 Honorary Fellow, Italian Surgical Society *1996 Ernest Miles Medal *1997 Gold Medal,

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located on ...

*1998

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

*1998 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science *1998 Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

*1999 Queen's Award for Higher and Continued Education *2003 President’s Medal,

Publications

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

BBC Radio 4 Interview with Cuschieri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuschieri, Alfred 1938 births Maltese surgeons British surgeons British medical researchers University of Malta alumni Academics of the University of Dundee Academics of the University of Liverpool Knights Bachelor Living people Maltese emigrants to the United Kingdom