Dr. James Porter is the most experienced minimally invasive, laparoscopic, robotic surgeon in the Pacific Northwest. He received his laparoscopic training in Heilbron, Germany, and returned to be the first surgeon in the Northwest to use the laparoscopic approach for radical and donor nephrectomy, partial nephrectomy, retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, and radical prostatectomy. Dr. Porter has been active in teaching and promotion of laparoscopic minimally invasive surgical techniques to the regional and national urologic community. Dr. Porter also performs cutting-edge surgery using the da Vinci® surgical system, such as the prostatectomies, partial nephrectomies and other urologic procedures. Dr. Porter is currently the Medical Director for Robotic Surgery at Swedish Medical Center where he also directs the Robotic and Laparoscopic Fellowship in Urology.
Dr. Ronney Abaza is Director of Robotic Surgery at OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital and has performed over 3200 robotic surgeries since 2006. He previously served on the Urology faculty at The University of Toledo and The Ohio State University and has been director of a Robotic Urologic Surgery Fellowship Program since 2010. Dr. Abaza is a frequent speaker at national and international society meetings and has given more than 90 presentations on robotic prostate, kidney and bladder surgery in the past 5 years. He is editor of the textbook "Robotic Renal Surgery" published by Springer that is the only published textbook dedicated to robotic kidney surgery. Dr. Abaza frequently serves as faculty for educational courses both in the U.S. and internationally and as a panelist, moderator or course director for various national and international medical society meetings. His work in robotic surgery has been published extensively in major urology journals. He has performed live surgery for the American Urological Association Annual Meeting, the World Congress of Endourology, the European Robotic Urology Symposium, and the International Robotic Urology Symposium among other venues. He frequently hosts surgeons from around the country and the world to observe him performing robotic surgery and share techniques.
Dr. Lee Ponsky is an Associate Professor Urology, Leo & Charlotte Goldberg Chair in Advanced Surgical Therapies and the Director, Urology Institute Division of Oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.