Koon Ho Rha

Dr. Koon Ho Rha is Professor of Urology and Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery Center. He received both his premedicine education magna cum laude and his M.D. degree from the Yonsei University, Seoul. Dr. Rha was trained during his urological rotating residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He underwent fellowship training in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution as Engineering and Urology endowed fellow, and served as visiting Assistant Professor in Urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During his stay, he also completed “Business in Medicine” a 1-year MBA program at the School of Business Administration and Education.

Prior to his return to Yonsei in 2003, Dr. Rha obtained extensive experience in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at Yonsei University and co-invented a novel surgical procedure “Video-Assisted Minilaparotomy Surgery (VAMS)” with Dr. SC Yang, which is now commercially available through Thompson Surgical, Inc. Later at Johns Hopkins, he continued his interests in the field of minimally invasive surgery/laparoscopy, and conducted further scientific studies with Dr. Louis R. Kavoussi, the leading pioneer on laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Dr. Rha set up the robotic surgery program at Yonsei University in 2005 which has the most robotic cases in the world with 16,000 (Nov 2016). During last 11 years, Dr. Rha has performed the most cases in Asia with more than 2300 cases of robotic cases including some 1900 cases of robotic prostatectomies. With cumulative experiences, Dr. Rha’s team developed world’s first robotic approaches of nephroureterectomies and single-incision partial nephrectomies. His research interest includes robotic platform and device development, and Dr. Rha heads Korean robotic clinical trial. He has given more than 450 lectures on robotic surgery. He also performed live surgery or proctored more than 60 occasions in 12 countries including US, China, Japan, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy and Malaysia.

Dr. Rha has more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific publications on minimally invasive urological surgery. He was the editor of Korean Journal of Endourology and serves as reviewer for Journal of Urology, Journal of Endourology and Journal of Robotic Surgery. He is the President of Korean Endourological Society and member of several professional organizations, including the American Urological Association, American College of Surgeons, Endourological Society, and Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons.

Editorial Board
Terms of Appointment: June 2017 - May 2019;  June 2019 - May 2021