Published: 14/02/2002, Volume II2, No. 5792 Page 18 19
Name: Professor Ara Darzi
Job: Department of Health surgery adviser
Style: Vorsprung durch Technik - he gets ahead through technology.
'Pioneering' surgeon whose work has gone as far as robotic arms and cybersurgery - 'Look, no hands', as one of his lectures describes it.Also working on an aircraftstyle 'black box' for operating theatres.Along with being professor of surgery at Imperial College and a consultant at St Mary's, London, he will now spearhead the DoH's push on day surgery.'I am not a czar, 'he says.Modest and soft-spoken, he was chosen for the sensitive task of reviewing elective surgery at Kidderminster - the town that elected Wye Forest MP Richard Taylor on a health concern ticket.He's just been called in for an 'emergency review'of services in Darlington and Durham - where Messrs Blair and Milburn hang out.
Member of the NHS modernisation board.
Background: Was going to be an engineer like his family; did medical training in Ireland instead.But 'bringing engineering into medicine' is a bit of a theme - 'Much of my academic work is about gizmos, 'he admits.Got his first consultant's job at Central Middlesex Hospital in 1992.Moved to St Mary's - a teaching hospital - in 1994, getting a chair at Imperial two years later, becoming professor of surgery and a head of department in 1998.Recently ditched his theatre greens to do a Friday nightshift as a porter in A&E.'Not everyone was pleasant, 'he noted.
Future prospects: 'Still practising surgery, 'he pledges, despite its 'seven-day'demands.Expect more innovations - new ways of working as well as techie stuff.And he's 'desperately keen' to get his hands on an Arsenal season ticket.
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