Ashok Kar

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ASHOK KAR

Consultant Thoracic Surgeon with clinical practice in Sheffield; UK GMC Specialist Register in Cardiothoracic Surgery since 2022. Obtained Fellowship Examination - F.R.C.S (C-Th) from Royal College of Surgeons, England (2019). Passionate about addressing health inequality for patients with ‘lung health problems‘ including cancer and COPD. As a practising surgeon, goal is to pursue surgical innovation in technology and integrate this with our evolving understanding of fundamental basic science, to drive improvements in patient outcomes.Oncological interests: non-small cell lung cancer, role of peri-operative chemo-immunotherapy in cancer surgery, tumour informed ctDNA assays for lung cancer, bronchoscopic localised/targeted therapy for lung tumours, management of neuorendocrine tumours as well as metastatic tumours to the lung. Benign thoracic surgery disease interests include: COPD, chest wall injuries/deformities and pleural endometriosis. Surgical interests: Minimal Access Thoracic Surgery for Lung Cancer including VATS and Robotic Surgery (RATS), Interventional, Robotic and Navigational Bronchoscopy (for ablation); Lung Volume Reduction Surgery/Endobronchial Valves; chest wall surgery/rib fixation/pectus surgery. General research interests are: machine learning in surgery; AI systems for delivery of healthcare decision making and improving clinical pathways; novel imaging and therapeutic/surgical techniques that require complex inter-disciplinary translational research e.g. NIHR funded pilot study in 2010-12 for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) which is now used in clinical practice within endoscopy and bronchoscopy. Leadership roles include: local administrative responsibilities for middle grade doctors/residents within department, development of a robotic thoracic programme at Northern General Hospital, and at national level, Council Member for the Royal Society of Medicine Cardiothoracic Section. Academic roles as Honorary Senior Lecturer include supervising BSc and MSc students at University of Sheffield, supervising medical students on student-selected electives for research projects in thoracic surgery. Formal teaching roles: in operating theatres to medical students; education and clinical supervisor to foundation doctors/resident surgical trainees; invited regularly to teach/lecture on regional and national courses/conferences as faculty including for UK Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery. Personal interests include running, golf, rugby, cricket, reading fiction and philosophy, hillwalking and spending time in the outdoors.