After initially graduating from the University of the West Indies, Miss McDonald spent a further nine years in the Bahamas in a range of surgical roles, before moving to London in 1982. She became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh that year and subsequently pursued specialist training in general surgery and urology, gaining her Diploma in Urology at the Institute of Urology (UCL London) in 1990. Miss McDonald was appointed consultant urologist at North Middlesex University Hospital in 1995.

Miss McDonald regularly travels to Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean to run workshops and to share her urological expertise and be involved in the training of the young urologists in these countries. She is actively involved in the teaching of surgical trainees in the UK, as Surgical Tutor at North Middlesex University Hospital as well as Educational and Clinical Supervisor. Miss McDonald has been a member of the Board of Directors and also a member of the Nominations Committee of the Societe Internationale D´Urologie, and is a Honorary Consultant to St Luke’s Healthcare, looking after the Church of England clergy.

She is a recipient of the Caribbean Urological Association award for training, and also the Association of surgeons in Zimbabwe award, which is inscribed with her motto, "Teach one, cure many".

We talk to her about all this, and more!

Julian Shah has now worked for 25 years as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Urology and for the St Peter's Hospitals group as consultant urological surgeon, now a part of UCLH. Though appointed as an academic urologist he provides a dedicated clinical service to UCL Hospitals. He has also been Director of the Urological Unit for Spinal Cord Injuries at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore. With an interest in neuro-urology and reconstruction, but with vast clinical experience in all sub-specialities of urology, Mr Shah has a wealth of wisdom and experience to share with future generations of urologists.

He is also the recipient of the Christchurch Medal for bravery for his heroic efforts during the earthquake in that city in 2011.  Arjun catches up with him to talk about that, and much more, in episode 3. 

Professor Naeem Soomro is Professor of Urology and Consultant Urologist at Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. His main interests are robotic prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy and transplant urology, as well as surgical education. 

His other achievements include:

• RCS(Eng) Lead in Robotic and Digital Surgery: Developing and implementing strategy of wider adoption of robotic and digital surgery across the UK.
• Chairman of Joint Surgical Colleges Fellowship Examination (JSCFE) Board in Urology.
• Director of Robotic Surgery Newcastle: Widest adoption of Robotic surgery with three Da Vinci and one Mako system specialities. Twenty-five surgeons delivering surgery across eight surgical undertaking robotic surgery, >35000 operation done.
• Executive Director, Newcastle Surgical Training Centre: Delivering 300 minimally invasive and robotic surgical training course each year.

His on-going projects include

• Digital Surgical Hub: Developing mixed/augmented reality, simulation, distant mentoring and robotic surgical training platform with incorporation of AI.
• Surgical Health Research Data Hub: Primary care, genomic, social care, EHR, Digital operative data. Incorporation of AI to develop and deliver personalised digital surgical journey
• Incorporation of spinal, microvascular surgery, interventional cardiology and intraluminal robotic systems

Arjun catches up with him and talks cars, the pragmatic view on current urological training, and being invited to meet the Queen!