About us

Dr. Ralph Clayman - Dr. Elspeth McDougall - Dr. Jaime Landman

Drs. Clayman, McDougall and Landman have been in academic medicine for a combined total of nearly 50 years. As a group, they have directly trained over 150 residents and fellows. They have taught more than 50 courses focusing on minimally invasive surgical training, and have cumulatively written in excess of 500 peer-reviewed articles about minimally invasive surgery. Drs. McDougall and Clayman founded and run the University of California - Irvine Astellas Center for Surgical Education, the only center in the United States with a Level I Education Institute designation by the American College of Surgeons and the first and only center to offer and maintain a postgraduate mini-residency experience in minimally invasive surgery.

Ralph V. Clayman, M.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Urology
Co-Director of the Astellas Center for Urological Education
University of California, Irvine

Dr. Ralph V. Clayman is world renowned for his expertise in minimally invasive surgery for kidney stone disease, kidney cancer, and strictures of the ureter and is named as one of America's Best Doctors. Following his general surgery and urology training at the University of Minnesota, he spent two years at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas pursuing his interests in renal cancer research, kidney stone disease, and minimally invasive urology. Dr. Clayman spent 17 years at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, rising to the positions of Professor of Urology and Radiology, Director of the Midwest Stone Institute, and Co-director of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery. In January 2002, he was appointed chair of the newly formed Department of Urology at University of Califonia, Irvine Medical Center. Dr. Clayman and his associates performed the world's first laparoscopic removal of a kidney for benign disease and for cancer, as well as the first laparoscopic removal of a kidney and ureter to treat cancer. He helped develop a balloon catheter to treat obstruction of the ureter and performed pioneering work on percutaneous and endoscopic therapy for ureteral and kidney stones.

Dr. Clayman established the first fellowship program in minimally invasive urology, and trainees of his program now occupy academic positions at universities throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel. Dr. Clayman is the author of textbooks on laparoscopic and percutaneous urologic surgery, and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. He is co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Endourology and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Urology and Urology. He has seven minimally invasive surgical instrumentation patents to his name. He was recently named to the American Board of Urology, a position he will hold through 2011. He is a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and was recently elected to the American Surgical Association. Dr. Clayman's patient care, teaching, and research efforts are focused on developing a kinder, gentler surgery in which incisions are either reduced in size or eliminated all together. In order to accomplish this goal, he and his team continue to explore a broad range of minimally invasive and noninvasive surgical techniques to bring up-to-the-moment technology into the operating room.

Elspeth M. McDougall, M.D., FRCSC
Professor, Department of Urology
Director, Astellas Center for Urological Education
Associate Dean, Clinical Science Education
Director, Research in Medical Education
University of California, Irvine

Dr. McDougall joined the University of California, Irvine, Department of Urology faculty in 2002 to continue her clinical and research work in minimally invasive urologic surgery and assist in the development of a minimally invasive surgery education center. She is internationally recognized for her laboratory and clinical research in urologic laparoscopic surgery and for teaching courses on fundamental and advanced endourological and laparoscopic techniques.

Dr. McDougall completed her medical and residency training at the University of Calgary and the University of Ottawa in Canada, and then undertook a fellowship in endourology and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) with Dr. Clayman at Washington University School of Medicine. She joined the faculty at Washington University Medical School in 1991, where she spent nine years in academic urology. Subsequently, she developed the Endourology/Laparoscopic Urology Program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, during her tenure there as Professor of Urologic Surgery. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (Urology) and certified with the American Board of Urology. Dr. McDougall has published more than 190 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous book chapters. She is the co-editor of two textbooks on laparoscopic surgery.

Dr. McDougall is chairperson of the AUA Laparoscopy Committee and coordinates the Ad Hoc Surgical Simulation Group with the American Urological Association. She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Endourology and the Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. She is Past President of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons and was awarded the Excel Award by this multidisciplinary surgical society in 2007. She is a member of the World Congress of Endourology's Scientific Meeting Advisory Committee and the Endourology Fellowship Committee. She was elected to the prestigious American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and is a junior council member for that organization.

Dr. McDougall is Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Education Center at UCI and has developed the ongoing, five-day mini-residency training program in minimally invasive urologic surgery for post-graduate urologists. Effective January 2008, Dr. McDougall has assumed the positions of Associate Dean of Clinical Science Education and Director of Research in Medical Education of the University of California, Irvine.

Jaime Landman, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Urology
Director, Minimally Invasive Urology
New-York Presbyterian Hospital

Dr. Jaime Landman is the Director of Minimally Invasive Urology at the Department of Urology of Columbia University. He serves as a full time faculty member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and is the Director of the Columbia University Minimally Invasive Urologic Oncology Fellowship.

Dr. Landman has been a visiting professor, lectured, and performed live surgical demonstrations around the United States, South America, Central America, Europe, and Asia. He has been faculty on over 60 courses teaching minimally invasive surgical techniques. At the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, he is the director of the course teaching "Renal Mass Biology, Relevant Anatomy, and Treatment Algorithms." This international course is designed to teach physicians from around the world advanced techniques for the management of kidney cancer.

Dr. Landman has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on the subject of minimally invasive urology as well as over 50 book chapters and invited articles. He is the director of the Columbia University Minimally Invasive Urology Laboratory which is dedicated to improving the techniques and technology associated with minimally invasive surgery.