Dr David Sillar

 

M.B.,B.S. ( QLD), FRACS ( Urol )

 

After graduating from the University of Queensland  in 1985 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, my early medical training was predominantly in Brisbane, but I also spent time as the acting Medical Superintendant at the Biggenden and Surat Hospitals.

Having decided to pursue a career in Surgery, I spent time as a Surgical registrar at the Cairns and the Southport Hospitals. My Urology training was complete in Brisbane including an initial six months in the Hepato-Biliary Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, at which time I was exposed to Laparoscopic surgery, which was in it’s infancy in the early 1990’s. I continued on this interest in Laparoscopy during my Urology Training, which included presenting some of the early techniques to Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Urological Society.

I obtained my Fellowship to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Urology in 1994. During my last year I received the the Keith Kirkland Prize, the prestigious annual research award for Australasian Urology Trainees, having earlier been runner up in the Neville Davis prize for research in General Surgery.

After this I did 12 months of Locum work,  throughout Queensland and Northern NSW, while deciding when I would settle down with my by then young family, before settling up practice in Lismore. I was the third generation to practice Medicine in Lismore, following my Grandfather Dr Don Sillar a Surgeon-GP, and my Uncle Dr Stuart Sillar, who was amongst the first in Australia to set up a specialist Urology practice outside of a capital city.

After 10 years, I move my practice to the Southern Gold Coast, with my private practice based at the John Flynn hospital, with my rooms onsite in the Fred McKay House. I continue to provide a public Urology service through the Tweed and Murwillumbah Hospitals.

I have developed an interest in Minimally Invasive Surgery, from early in my training. I have been doing laparoscopic procedures in General and Urological Surgery since the early 1990’s, this has included laparoscopic nephrectomy, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, and pyeloplasty. For almost as long I have been doing endourology procedures such as rigid and flexible ureteroscopy, and percutaneous procedures for the management of renal tract calculi ( Kidney Stones). Recently as the technology has become available I have also been using LASER’s for Urological procedures and I convened a LASER workshop in 2004 in Lismore.

Through my public hospital commitment and with my colleagues in East Coast Urology, I provide teaching to the next generation of Doctors and Urologists. At present I am the Supervisor of Training, with an accredited Advanced Trainee in Urology at the Tweed Hospital.