Dr. Jihad Kaouk is a board-certified urologist, internationally recognized as top expert in Urologic robotic surgery and innovation. As the Center for Robotic and Image-Guided Surgery director and Vice-Chair of Enterprise Surgical Operations at Cleveland Clinic, he has made significant contributions to the field. Additionally, Dr. Kaouk is a Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and holds the Zegarac-Pollock Endowed Chair in Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery.
Dr. Kaouk has performed more than 6000 robotic and minimally invasive Urologic surgeries. He has been a forerunner in surgical innovation, introducing several landmark procedures. Among his achievements are conducting the first robotic single port (SP) transumbilical surgery in 2008, pioneering the first entirely transvaginal nephrectomy in 2009, and developing the robotic perineal prostatectomy in 2014. He has also played a key role in integrating SP Robotic Surgery into urology, leading to breakthroughs such as the first SP extraperitoneal and transvesical robotic prostatectomies, along with groundbreaking SP extraperitoneal kidney transplantation and SP LAA, Low anterior access robotic partial nephrectomy procedures. Holding six U.S. patents for medical devices, he is also a co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Method Surgical AI.