Barrie Keeler is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Milton Keynes University Hospital. He also leads multiple clinical areas including as Clinical Director of Colorectal Surgery, Colorectal Cancer Lead, and also Robotics Lead within the Trust. To date he has completed over 200 colorectal resections using Versius having started using the system in November 2019. Given his extensive knowledge and experience with Versius, he has worked as a preceptor for CMR Surgical and regularly has visitors from institutions around the Globe hoping to observe Versius in clinical practice and also develop their own use of the system. As the first surgeon in England to use Versius, his teams at Milton Keynes have undertaken nearly 1000 cases using the platform across 4 specialities.
Prof. Keeler completed his higher surgical training in the Oxford Region before undertaking a Royal College approved Fellowship in high volume centres including Minimally Invasive Surgery at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Robotic Surgery using the Intuitive platforms in University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire.
As a clinical trialist with a strong research focus on perioperative care, he was awarded a PhD in 2016 for his work in patient blood management. This included the notable IVICA trial investigating intravenous iron in anaemic colorectal cancer patients. As Chief Investigator and PhD supervisor, he recently led the VOLCANO and VOLTAIRE randomised controlled trials examining the ergonomics of robotic open consoles compared with laparoscopic approaches. In recognition of his extensive contributions, he has been appointed Honorary Professor of Surgery at the University of Buckingham.
He is passionate about research, innovation, education and training the next generation of laparoscopic and robotic surgeons.