Urolink Executive
The Urolink Executive Committee meets twice a year, usually in Spring and Autumn. The committee is responsible for the organisation, financial administration and running of Urolink and accomplishes this by:
- discussing Urolink strategy and progress with BAUS (through the Committee Chair);
- taking reponsibility for the evolution of Urolink strategy (as it has since its inception in 1990); and
- including at least one of the BAUS Trustees in its Executive Committee meetings.
The committee members represent a broad range of interests in LMICs, principally in Africa. Other faculty members, representatives of other groups / associations and representatives from industry may be asked to attend meetings to help achieve the aims of Urolink.
Individual email addresses have been listed (where available) but you can make a general contact the Urolink Committee via the Administrator, by using the Urolink "Contact" page.
Members of the Committee
Mrs Suzie Venn (Chair of Urolink)
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Suzie is a Consultant Urological Surgeon on the South Coast, specialising in reconstruction and functional Urology. She first visited KCMC, Tanzania, in 2005, joining the bi-annual workshop, and her interest and passion in helping develop Urology in LMICs grew from there. Suzie has been chair of Urolink since 2015, and has focused its efforts on developing 3 project sites in East Africa, with support from TUF, BJUI and BAUS. Future plans include widening support to other centres in East Africa, and beyond, by involving more BAUS members and trainees in the work, and increasing funding.
Mr Steve Payne (Honorary Secretary & Web Editor)
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Steve was Chair of Urolink between 2001 and 2006 and is now a retired having been a Consultant Urologist and Andrologist in Manchester UK. He was responsible for the development of the original Urolink website and intimately involved with the funding of, and working with, Alfred Mteta on the 2005 KCMC rebuilding project. More recently, he has been significantly occupied with the urethral reconstructive workshops in Hawassa, Ethiopia, and KCMC, Tanzania as well as reconstruction and paediatric urology in Lilongwe, Malawi. As a previous exam Board chair in the JCIE and JSCFE in urology Steve has also become involved with, and is now external examiner for, the COSECSA Fellowship examination, advising on aspects of exam structure and its quality control.
Professor Ian Pearce (BAUS Trustee Representative)
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Ian Pearce is the current President of BAUS and is the Trustee representative on Urolink. He has been a Trustee of BAUS for almost 10 years, having previously held the positions of Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary. He is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary with a specialist interest in Andrology.
Mr Mike Ng (BAUS Section of Trainees Representative)
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Mike is a urology registrar in the South-West deanery. He first developed an interest in global surgery as a medical student, leading to an elective placement in the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Lusaka Zambia in 2013. During the COVID-19 pandemic he helped develop and run the ongoing Urolink webinar programme, providing the opportunity to work alongside the team in UTH once more. This has produced a successful archive of educational content and has been presented at a national level. As BSoT representative he hopes to encourage further trainee discussion and involvement in Urolink projects as well as promote opportunities for education and training workshops in LMICs. Mike is a TUF Urolink Fellow for 2024.
Mr Zeeshan Aslam (Member)
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Zeeshan is Consultant Urological Surgeon at Victoria Hospital, NHS Fife Scotland, who specializes in Renal Cancer management. He contributed to Urolink as the trainee Rep between 2015-17 when he volunteered at 3 different LUT endoscopy workshops in Ethiopia. He has regularly guided local trainees remotely from the UK about audit work, data collection and analysis, and contributed COSECSA FCS MCQ questions. He currently leads on laparoscopic training and simulation courses at Hospital General Idrissa Pouye, Senegal and University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. He is in the early stages of facilitating a Urology fellowship eventually leading to a training programme in Liberia, with collaborations involving Urolink, RCS Edinburgh, WHO Liberia and the Liberian Health Ministry. Zeeshan is facilitating widespread uptake of urological laparoscopy in Pakistan In collaboration with several local institutes and the Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons. Zeeshan supports the overhaul of the healthcare systems in LMICs at a grass-roots level, and is currently completing a Master’s in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to achieve his long-term goals.
Mr Shekhar Biyani
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Shekhar is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds with expertise in stone disease and laparoscopy. He trained in general surgery in India, undertook urology training in the UK and completed an MSc in Medical and Healthcare simulation. He is a keen surgical trainer, and has delivered courses in the UK, Africa and Europe. He was instrumental in developing National Urology Simulation Boot Camp for urology trainees and is co-Lead for the Cadaveric Simulation Centre (CADSIM) at the University of Leeds. Shekhar has delivered seven skills training sessions on the Management of Surgical Emergencies in sub-Saharan Africa under the umbrella of ASGBI and Urolink. He was instrumental in developing the 2nd Urology Unit with endourology skills in Hawassa, Ethiopia and has trained local urologists in basic endourological skills. He has gained valuable experience in course delivery, assessment and expanded a new perspective on the teaching-and-learning process. He was awarded the John Anderson Medal for his educational activities by the British Association of Urological Surgeons in 2022 and a British Empire Medal in 2024. He is a regular visitor to the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka and to Hawassa.
Mr Nick Campain (Member)
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Nick is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, specialising in robotic, laparoscopic and open upper tract surgery. He trained in the South-West deanery before completing a post CCT fellowship at the Specialist Centre for Kidney Cancer, Royal Free Hospital in London. He first visited Zambia in 2005 as a medical student to undertake research and also spent a year working abroad for Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ) in 2010. In 2013 he undertook a BJUI/BAUS Urolink fellowship and was Urolink's Honorary Secretary between 2015 and 2020. He has undertaken several visits to University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka and Hawassa University Comprehensice Specialist Hospital, Ethiopia during his registrar training and is now leading on a new link with Ndola Teaching Hosptial, Zambia. He developed and led the Urolink educational webinar programme since 2020.
Mr Aasem Chaudry (Member)
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Aasem undertook basic surgical training in Pakistan & the UK, and specialist training in urology in Yorkshire and London. This was completed at the Institute of Urology London in 1994. From 1996 to 2006, he worked as a Consultant Urologist in tertiary care settings in Pakistan. His speciality interests are stone disease, prostate cancer, minimally-invasiver therapy for BPH & andrology.
Professor Ramnath Subramaniam (Member)
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Ram has been Consultant, and Professor of Paediatric Urology, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 2002. Ram has demonstrated his enthusiasm for education and training in paediatric urology, across Europe, for many years. Since 2018 he has spent time in training camps, and workshops, in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular emphasis on teaching complex reconstructive procedures. He has visited Hawassa (Ethiopia), Moshi (Tanzania) and Lilongwe (Malawi) in 2018, 2019 and 2023 with a brief interruption due to Covid! He is committed to supporting centres in low and low-middle Income countries, and hopes to empower local surgeons in their home environment. In this way he aims to help them provide much-needed basic paediatric urological care, enhanced by reconstructive skills, for the multitude of children requiring assistance in those countries.
Mr Matthew Trail (Member)
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Matt is Consultant Urological Surgeon in Edinburgh having previously been the BSoT Urolink liaison member. During his registrar training, he assisted in developing and delivering a successful laparoscopic urology workshop in Dakar, Senegal which has since been awarded accreditation from RCSEd. He has continued to pursue his passion for enhancing access to urological training for fellow trainees in sub-Saharan Africa by providing remote webinar teaching sessions. This was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic for local trainees in Senegal and further afield. Matt used his role as BSoT rep to raise awareness of Urolink projects and to encourage UK-based trainees to take advantage of the opportunities from exposure to healthcare and urological training in LMICs. He was a 2022 TUF Fellowhip award winner and spent time at KCMC in Tanzania in the final months of his training helping to establish a teaching programme for local trainees.
Professor Maxine Tran (Member)
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Maxine is Professor of Urology at University College London and honorary Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Specialist Centre for Kidney Cancer at the Royal Free Hospital, London.
She is extending Urolink's reach into the Far East by developing links with Hanoi Medical University and it's partner hospitals (National Cancer Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital), and is supported by UCL's Global Engagement Office & Fund.
Danielle Whiting (Member)
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Danielle is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Frimley Park Hospital specialising in endourology and paediatrics. She has a keen interest in Global Health and has previously been involved in a large organisation working on sustainable development in Central America and Africa. In 2023 she was granted a TUF Urolink Fellowship and went to KCMC Tanzania to be a significant part of the first PCNL workshop in the summer of 2024.
Ms Patricia Hagan (Urolink Administrator)
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Tricia is the Deputy Chief Executive of BAUS. She is responsible for all the BAUS Sections (including Urolink), finance, membership, information technology and CEA awards.
Ms Hannah Doyle (Urolink Administrator)
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Hannah is the Project and Programme Co-ordinator at BAUS, and works alongside Patricia Hagan on Urolink matters. Contact Hannh for any general queries about the Section.