Professor Nikhil Vasdev is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and Professor and Chair of Robotic Surgery at the School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire. Professor Vasdev is the Associate Medical Director for Cancer Services and Cancer Lead at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (Appointed in October 2019).
In September 2016, Prof Vasdev was awarded the prestigious ‘Celebration of Clinical Excellence Award’ by the Chief Executive of East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and, in May 2017, Prof Vasdev was awarded the ‘Best Innovator’ title in the Surgical Division Awards at the Trust. In April 2019, Prof Vasdev demonstrated a live robotic bladder removal and robotic urinary diversion at the Thai Urology Association meeting – the second operation of its kind to be performed in Thailand. In May 2020, Prof Vasdev was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc)” [Higher award than PhD] by the awards committee at the University of Hertfordshire, in recognition of Prof Vasdev contribution to robotics in surgery.
Prof Vasdev’s specialist interest is urologic oncology (clinical and academic). He specialises in both robotic prostate and bladder cancer surgery (robotic prostatectomy with intra-operative frozen section of prostate (NeuroSAFE) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection and robotic cystectomy) and robotic pyeloplasty. Prof Vasdev in 2019 commenced performing robotic salvage prostatectomy and robotic salvage cystectomy (in patients with cancer recurrence following initial radical radiotherapy). Prof Vasdev also performs robotic cystectomy with both ileal conduit and neobladder formation.
In February 2017, Prof Vasdev led and commenced the Blue Light Cystoscopy programme for bladder cancer patients in North Hertfordshire. Prof Vasdev has performed 1,100 robotic urological procedures in 8 years as a consultant.
Prof Vasdev is the UK’s first nationally accredited Robotic Fellow by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the British Association of Urological Surgeons. As a part of his robotic urological fellowship in the UK and USA, he obtained a ChM (Urol) with a distinction from the University of Edinburgh / Royal College of Surgeon of Edinburgh for his thesis on the use of ‘Intraoperative frozen section of the prostate to reduce positive margin and improve nerve sparing during robotic prostatectomy’.
Prof Vasdev has published extensively and has over 230 peer-reviewed articles, 370 abstracts, 12 book chapters, written 2 textbooks on urological cancers and is on the editorial board of 15 international urological journals. He is on the national and international Fellowship accreditation committee at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Prof Vasdev is the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust Cancer Network lead for the Lister Robotic Urology / Vatikutti Foundation, USA collaboration. Prof Vasdev is an international proctor in Robotic Urological Surgeon and mentors’ hospitals / surgeons in Europe and Asia (India, Hong Kong and Thailand) regularly in and is a clinical advisor to Prostate Cancer UK. In 2022, Prof Vasdev performed Jordan’s first robotic surgery.
Prof Vasdev’s urological surgical training includes his research in Gene Therapy for Urological Malignancies at the National University Hospital, Singapore, followed by his basic surgical training at the National University Hospital, Singapore, and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He then completed my 6-year higher surgical training on type-1 national training number in urology in the Northern Deanery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, training at large teaching hospitals including the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne; James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and Sunderland Royal Hospital, UK and Robotic fellowship training at the Lister Hospital, UK, and City of Hope national medical centre, Los Angeles, USA.
