Faculty

Dr. James Porter is Director of Robotic Surgery at Providence St. Joseph Health Care System and Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He is former Associate Professor of Urology and head of laparoscopy and robotics in the Department of Urology at the University of Washington Medical Center. He performed the first laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in the Pacific Northwest on October, 2000. His area of expertise is robotic assisted prostatectomy, and partial nephrectomy. He developed the retroperitoneal approach for robotic renal surgery and pioneered robotic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for the treatment of testicular cancer. He has been director of a fellowship in robotic and laparoscopic surgery for the last 21 years. He is the most experienced laparoscopic and robotic surgeon in the Pacific Northwest and has performed over 5,000 robotic procedures. He earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Ohio State University. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio and performed his urology residency at the University of Washington Medical Center. He obtained advanced laparoscopic training in Heilbronn, Germany under the direction of Dr. Jens Rassweiler. He recently was recognized for his contributions to robotic surgery by receiving the Menon award for robotic surgery at the North American Robotic Urology Symposium.