Rate My Professor Thomas Elliott

Thomas Elliott is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Critical Care (Dunedin) at the University of Otago, Faculty of Medicine. He obtained his BSc and MB ChB degrees from the University of Otago in 1984 and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1990. He holds full New Zealand medical registration since 25 November 1985, with a vocational scope in General Surgery. His career includes specialist training at Wellington Hospital in 1985 and the Northern Training Scheme in General Surgery at Auckland Hospital, Middlemore Hospital, and North Shore Hospital from 1986 to 1991. Elliott completed a fellowship in Gastrointestinal Surgery at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 1993. He served as Consultant Surgeon in the Hepato-Biliary Unit at Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, from 1994 to 1995, before taking up his position as Consultant Surgeon at Southern District Health Board in 1996, a role he continues to hold alongside his academic appointment.

Elliott's academic interests center on clinical general surgery, with particular emphasis on upper gastrointestinal surgery. His special clinical interests encompass surgery and endoscopy of the gastrointestinal tract, including colonoscopy and gastroscopy, as well as laparoscopic surgery such as gallbladder removal, anti-reflux procedures (Nissen fundoplication), hernia repairs, and bowel surgery. He delivers integrated care for gastrointestinal conditions including gallstones, colonic and rectal cancers, ano-rectal diseases, reflux oesophagitis, and malignancies of the oesophagus and stomach. Elliott also oversees a screening and surveillance programme using regular colonoscopies for patients with a family history of colon and rectal cancer, and manages skin and subcutaneous tissue malignancies, though he does not handle breast, thyroid, or vascular surgery. In teaching, he instructs fourth-year medical students, trainee interns, and surgical registrars. He is a member of the International Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Association and serves as the New Zealand representative on the Board of the Australia and New Zealand Gastro-oesophageal Surgery Association. Key publications include 'Smoking is a major risk factor for anastomotic leak in patients undergoing low anterior resection' with Richards et al. (Colorectal Disease, 2012), 'Five-year audit of the acute complications of diverticular disease' with Yego and Irvin (British Journal of Surgery, 1997), 'Laparoscopic extraperitoneal lumbar sympathectomy: technique and early results' with Royle (Australian & New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 1996), 'Left laparoscopic adrenalectomy for a rare cavernous haemangioma' with Richter et al. (ANZ Journal of Surgery, 2009), and 'Mortality, morbidity and 2 year survival following oesophagectomy: Dunedin experience' with Popadich (ANZ Journal of Surgery, 2007).