About STaR Centre

Our Mission:

To improve the outcomes of patients with surgical diseases within New Zealand and beyond, through excellent research, technology and collaboration.

Academic Mission:

Improve societal well-being by reducing the burden of surgical diseases and their treatment Inspire and train a diverse clinical research workforce of surgeons and surgical researchers Reduce health inequities in access and outcomes from surgical diseases, especially for Māori and Pacific peoples and globally

Our Aspirations:

• To establish a highly integrated multi-disciplinary Centre by bringing together four established and successful research groups to grow surgical and translational research.
• To ensure a highly productive environment that stimulates research through the ‘bench-to-bedside-to-community’ continuum (translation and implementation).
• To create a profile to help leverage and augment the University’s investment by securing strategic industry partners and public/philanthropic funding.

Surgery and Surgical Research

Surgical disease encompasses many non-communicable diseases and cancers, and is best understood as ‘one that requires surgical expertise, and not necessarily a surgical operation’. It is estimated 30% of the global burden of disease can be attributed to surgically diseases. Also, over 5 billion people globally do not have access to safe surgery and anaesthesia, and yet treating surgical disease is often highly cost-effective compared with many public health initiatives.

Historically considered a craft, surgery is now properly considered an applied science alongside other medical sciences. Like all medical sciences, surgery is being revolutionised by emerging technologies. The tools by which physical interventions are made on human tissue, once limited to simple manual instruments, now include an array of devices that use laser, ultrasound, radiation, and thermal methods. Diagnostic probes are becoming more sophisticated. And of course, with the rise of next-generation robotics and artificial intelligence, it is not always a human surgeon who is directly wielding the instrument or making the decisions.

The fundamental scientific underpinnings of surgery are being revolutionised as we gain insight into the causes of disease on a genomic and molecular level. One of the inherent challenges of conducting research by surgeons is the significant demands of surgical practice itself. The University of Auckland’s Department of Surgery has taken up these challenges in academic surgery and has made it a priority to train surgeon-scientists and future leaders in surgery. And we are very mindful of the priority to training Māori and Pacific surgeon scientist, as part of the strategy to address the inequities of outcome from surgery with this ethnic groups.

The STaR Centre has brought together four leading research platforms to help promote multi-disciplinary and translation research that can be implemented, and often through commercialization and clinical testing. The centre is well-positioned at the interface of University, Hospital, Community and Industry and will help set the standard for surgical care, introduce innovative solution and influence policy in Aotearoa New Zealand.