Khurshid Guru, MD

Khurshid A. Guru, MD, was appointed Director of Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in October 2005. Dr. Guru completed his residency training in Urologic Surgery (2005) and a Robotic Surgery Fellowship (2004) at the Vattikuti Urology Institute, Henry Ford Health System, MI. He also completed an International Fellowship in Urologic-Oncology (2004) at the Urology and Nephrology Center at Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

Dr. Guru is one of the early fellowship-trained robotic surgeons (2004) with an experience of over 10,000 surgical console hours and has performed over 2,500 procedures. Dr. Guru pioneered the Robotic cystectomy program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Performed the first Robotic cystectomy in Western New York in November 2005. He also worked in development and evolution of oncologic safety and efficacy of minimally invasive approaches to bladder cancer. Dr. Guru has performed live demonstrations of robotic surgery in eleven countries at international seminars. His experience in robot-assisted surgery, especially his 500 robot-assisted radical cystectomies, has been shared with over 400 surgeons from more than 15 countries.

His research interest has also been in the application of robotic surgery for urinary reconstruction. Dr. Guru developed one of the first robotic surgical simulators and works extensively in safe human-machine interface, cognitive interaction and developing safe environments during robot-assisted surgery. Dr. Guru developed the first validated robotic surgery curriculum for safe transfer of surgical skills for future robotic surgeons. His major interest is bladder cancer and robotic surgical education and its incorporation. He leads the International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium with over 55 surgeon members in over 23 countries. He also leads the Applied Technology Laboratory for Advanced Surgery (ATLAS) Program at Roswell Park.

Dr. Guru is a member of the American Urological Association, Cancer Society of Kashmir. He founded a non-profit foundation in 2007 which supports health and education-related programs in Kashmir. His foundation supports children in government-run schools in his native home, Kashmir and an innovative Junior Robotics Surgery Challenge here in his home town Buffalo, NY. He has authored and co-authored over 250 several journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.

In 2015, Dr. Guru's work was featured in the British Journal of Urology International. Read his article, Cognitive Skills Assessment During Robot-assisted Surgery and watch the accompanying video.