Urologist
Freeman Hospital, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
Mr Bhavan Rai is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, specialising in robotic surgery and urological oncology. He leads a high-volume robotic practice with particular expertise in prostate cancer, upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), and renal cancer.
He is the Chairman-elect of the BAUS Oncology Section (taking office in 2027) and leads national initiatives including the BAUS I-DUNC audit and GIRFT UTUC pathway, also serving on the GIRFT Robotic Surgery Subgroup. In 2025, he received the Karl Storz Harold Hopkins Golden Telescope, awarded for outstanding contributions to British urology within ten years of consultant appointment.
Internationally, he serves on the European Association of Urology (EAU) Methodology Committee and Guidelines Panels for NMIBC and UTUC, and has contributed to the NHS England Evidence-Based Interventions Programme.
He sits on the editorial boards of BJUI and JCU, and on the Scientific Committee of The Urology Foundation.
Mr Rai has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and presented widely at national and international meetings. He is Principal Investigator for multicentre trials including ELIPSE, ATLANTA, IP5-Matter, and ASCERTAIN, and has led Cochrane and EAU-endorsed systematic reviews influencing international guidelines. The national I-DUNC audit, led by him, evaluated the impact of diagnostic ureteroscopy on nephroureterectomy outcomes and adherence to UTUC standards of care.
A committed educator, he directed the Newcastle Robotic Surgery Fellowship, is Course Director for the UK Cadaveric Robotic Surgery Training Programme, and serves as a Hands-on Trainer at EUREP. He also co-created URO-GRIPP, an international webinar platform for urological training.
Mr Rai is an advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), having launched the Women in Urology series and co-founded the PRISM and YIPE Awards through IBUS to recognise inclusive excellence in urology.
Friday, October 31, 2025
09:25 - 09:40 GMT+0