Mehran Anvari

Biography

Dr. Anvari completed his medical training at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1984) and his surgical residency training at McMaster University (1989), followed by three years in Australia obtaining his PhD. In 1992, he established his own clinical practice and GI motility laboratory at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. Dr. Anvari is currently a professor of surgery and director of research for the Department of Surgery at McMaster University. In May 2004, he was appointed to the newly created Chair in Minimally Invasive Surgery and Surgical Innovation. Dr. Anvari is the founding director of the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery, the first Canadian centre of its kind, dedicated to the promotion of minimal access techniques in all surgical specialties through training of surgeons, and the conduct of multicentre outcome studies. Dr. Anvari currently holds multi-million dollar grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Ontario Ministry of Health, and from the Canada Health Infostructure Partnerships Program (CHIPP). In 2003, Dr. Anvari established the world’s first telerobotic surgical service linking St. Joseph’s Healthcare and a distant community hospital. His work with telerobotics has been recognized by the Government of Canada with the presentation of the "Gold Medal of Distinction" during the annual Government Technology Exhibition Week, and by the Government of Ontario with the "Diamond Award for Innovation in Technology" awarded during Showcase 2003. Dr. Anvari is the chief scientific officer for the NEEMO 9 project scheduled for October 2005, a joint project of CMAS, the Canadian Space Agency and NASA, testing the ability of new robotic and telesurgical technology to allow a non-physician to perform assisted surgery in a contained environment that simulates conditions in space. The author of over 120 publications, Dr. Anvari is frequently invited lecturer on the outcomes and evidence for the increasing use of laparoscopic esophagogastric and bowel surgery as well as on the use of robotics in surgery. He is a very active educator, having mentored 50 surgeons and participated in the training of at least 700 surgeons across the country. Dr. Anvari was appointed the Janes Visiting Professor in Surgery in 2002 by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Research Interest

Research interests include both basic science and clinical studies in the fields of gastrointestinal motility and other gastrointestinal disorders, and outcomes research in laparoscopic surgery. The basic work focuses on the role of neurotransmitters in control of gastrointestinal motility. The clinical research focuses on physiological mechanisms responsible for a number of clinical disorders including gastroesophageal reflux disease and achalasia. Other clinical work includes outcomes of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer, and in obese patients, as well as telerobotic surgery. Collaborative work includes development of new robotic technologies for laparoscopic surgery and investigations into the feasibility of telerobotic surgery in remote regions and extreme environments.