Associate Professor Phillip Antippa is a specialist cardiothoracic surgeon and the Head of Thoracic Surgical Services at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, as part of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
His work includes all aspects of adult thoracic surgery including care of patients with malignancies of the chest. He is also committed to research and teaching, as well as having an active role in the Trauma Service at the RMH.
Phillip is a native Melbournian and studied medicine and music at the University of Melbourne. The majority of his surgical training was undertaken at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with a fellowship year in Cardiac and General Thoracic Surgery at The University of Virginia, Charlottesville Virginia USA.
Phillip performs all aspects of thoracic surgery from advanced bronchoscopy with laser and stenting to advanced pulmonary resections including video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) pulmonary resections and robotic thoracic surgery. He has an active interest in chest wall trauma, chest wall resection and reconstruction as well as pectus deformity corrective surgery including the Nuss Procedure.
His major research interests include lung cancer, pulmonary metastasectomy and traumatic rib osteosynthesis. His special interest in medical informatics has led Phillip to develop systems including electronic patient records and audit and research databases including the construction of Australasia’s Registry for Thoracic Surgery (ANZTHOR) and the international Registry for Rib Fixation (CWIS CIID).
Phillip is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne. He pursues an active teaching role for medical students, residents and nursing staff as well as specialist trainees in cardiothoracic surgery. He has developed and runs a Thoracic Fellowship program for training senior registrars in advanced thoracic surgical oncology. He also acts as a preceptor for industry in training other thoracic surgeons in minimally invasive thoracic surgery including VATS Lobectomy and Thoracic Surgical Oncology.
Phillip is the thoracic surgery representative for the Australasian College of Surgeons Board of Studies for Cardiothoracic Surgery and also sits on the board of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia. He sits on many other national and international committees involved with lung cancer, thoracic surgery and chest wall surgery.
Phillip is an active musician and viola player, and is the director of Corpus Medicorum - the highly acclaimed medical orchestra in Melbourne. They perform regularly and have travelled overseas on behalf of the City of Melbourne. The orchestra raises funds through the Royal Melbourne Hospital Foundation for Lung Cancer Research.
In January 2020, Phillip received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to thoracic surgery and to music.