Dr Paul Edwards

ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography) and hepatobiliary medicine | MBBS, MD

Dr Paul Edwards graduated from Sydney University in 1982 and commenced his internship at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, where he completed his internship and residency before beginning his physician training and passing the physicians’ exam on his first attempt in 1985.

He then undertook advanced training in gastroenterology from 1986 to 1988 inclusive, obtaining an excellent grounding in acute gastroenterology, complications of liver disease, and biliary interventional medicine, as the hospital had a highly advanced biliary surgical unit.

After completing his advanced training, he enrolled in a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of New South Wales in 1990 under Professor David Cooper. His thesis topic was “The Gastrointestinal Manifestations of HIV Infection and AIDS”. During that time, he was also appointed as a Staff Specialist in Gastroenterology at St Vincent’s Hospital until he won a travelling fellowship to work as a Visiting Professor at Duke University, North Carolina, from 1991 to 1993.

At Duke University, he was tutored and mentored by Professor Peter Cotton, who had established a biliary medicine unit specialising in ERCP and all aspects of biliary medicine. It was one of the pre-eminent ERCP referral units in the United States.

In 1993, he returned to practice in Sydney, taking up an appointment as a Visiting Medical Officer at St Vincent’s Hospital, while also assuming the position of Director of the Diagnostic Endoscopy Centre at St Vincent’s Private Clinic. He also commenced private practice in the Liverpool area.

In 1995, he was appointed as a Visiting Medical Officer at Fairfield Hospital specifically to provide an ERCP service to the surgical unit. In 1997, he became the first specialist gastroenterologist appointed to Liverpool Hospital, alongside two other general physicians trained in gastroenterology. Together, they established the physician-based Gastroenterology Unit at Liverpool Hospital, which has since expanded into one of the largest, busiest, and most complex gastroenterology departments in New South Wales and Australia. The department now has a senior staff of more than 12 gastroenterologists and hepatologists and is a major training centre for New South Wales.

In 2012, he retired from practice at the St Vincent’s campus and has since worked full-time at Liverpool Public Hospital, Fairfield Hospital, and in private practice in the Liverpool area.

His main special interest is ERCP, and since commencing training in 1986, he has completed between 15,000 and 20,000 ERCP procedures, while training registrars in Australia since 1993. This represents one of the largest individual experiences in ERCP in Australia. His special interests within hepatobiliary medicine include the development and refinement of single-operator cholangioscopy and pancreatoscopy, which are important emerging technologies in biliary medicine. He also has a strong interest in the training of advanced registrars in advanced ERCP techniques.

He also performs standard gastroenterological procedures, including diagnostic endoscopy, colonoscopy, and therapeutic colonoscopy. In this field, he has probably performed between 40,000 and 50,000 procedures since completing his training in 1988.

He has witnessed enormous changes in gastroenterological and endoscopic practice over his 38 years in gastroenterology and remains excited and enthused by these dramatic developments, as well as by working alongside his junior colleagues, many of whom he trained as registrars at Liverpool Hospital during the 2000s.

All appointments an enquiries with Dr Paul Edwards
can be made by calling 9601 7766

Email: reception@southwestgastro.com.au
FAX: 9601 7789

Suite 5, Level 1, 105-119 Longstaff Avenue,
Chipping Norton, NSW, 2170