Santis Health
Photo Courtesy of Santis Health

In prostate cancer surgery, the most consequential decisions are often made in the narrow space between removing disease and preserving the functions that shape a patient's life afterward.

Santis Health has built its clinical practice around that tension. The London specialist clinic combines robotic prostatectomy, real-time pathology and multidisciplinary planning to address cancer control alongside urinary continence and sexual function. Its work rests on a straightforward premise: advanced technology has value only when it helps clinicians make better decisions for individual patients.

That approach has earned Santis Health a 2026 Global Recognition Award in Innovation. The recognition reflects a model in which surgical techniques and diagnostic information are not treated as isolated capabilities, but as connected parts of the same clinical process.

The Work Behind the Recognition

Santis Health performs nearly 200 prostate cancer operations each year. That volume gives its surgical team regular experience with a procedure that requires more than just technical control. Radical prostatectomy demands thorough cancer removal, but it also requires careful attention to the nerves and anatomical structures that may affect continence and sexual function after surgery.

The clinic uses the Retzius-sparing approach to robotic prostatectomy, whenever clinically appropriate. This technique preserves the anatomy just in front of the prostate, the area that contains the key anchor points for the urinary control mechanism, which promotes an earlier recovery of continence for most patients.

The da Vinci Single Port robotic system forms another part of Santis Health's practice. The platform supports minimally invasive access through a single port, rather than the usual 5–6 ports. However, the clinic's emphasis is not on the device in isolation. Its surgical team has worked together for 15 years, creating continuity across planning, surgery and follow-up.

In a field where clinical decisions can change during an operation, a team's familiarity with one another's roles can be as important as the tools at its disposal.

When Surgical Judgement Meets Evidence

A central feature of Santis Health's model is its use of intra-operative NeuroSAFE pathology. The process allows tissue to be assessed microscopically during surgery, rather than waiting until the procedure is complete before considering the pathologist's findings. That information allows the team to evaluate cancer margins while deciding exactly how much nerve tissue can be safely preserved.

The value of this approach lies in timing. Prostate cancer surgery frequently involves a difficult trade-off: removing additional tissue may strengthen confidence in cancer control, while preserving tissue may matter for post-operative sexual function.

NeuroSAFE does not eliminate the complexity of that decision. It gives surgeons the key information at a time that allows them to adapt the procedure to the findings in front of them.

Santis Health also uses multidisciplinary review to guide treatment planning before surgery. Specialists in urology, oncology, pathology, radiology and nuclear medicine examine imaging and clinical information together.

The process is designed to ensure that surgical planning is informed by more than one perspective and that diagnosis, treatment decisions and delivery of care are connected rather than handled as separate stages.

A Clinical Model Built Around Outcomes

The clinic has published clinical results and presented findings at international scientific meetings, subjecting its work to peer review beyond its own operating rooms.

This record matters because surgical innovation can be difficult to assess without evidence of what happens after the procedure. Santis Health has focused its reported outcomes on the areas most likely to affect a patient's future: cancer control, urinary continence and sexual function.

The award assessment considered Santis Health's performance in innovation, leadership, service and clinical impact.

Using the Rasch model, the evaluation applied a linear measurement scale that enabled the panel to compare shortlisted recipients across those criteria. Santis Health was recognised not for claiming that a single technology changes prostate cancer care, but for assembling a system that applies available methods to specific clinical decisions.

'Santis Health demonstrates exceptional qualities through its ability to connect advanced surgical methods with careful clinical judgment, measurable outcomes and a sustained commitment to the needs of patients,' said Alex Sterling, a spokesperson for Global Recognition Awards.

In a specialty shaped by high-stakes choices, the clinic's work suggests that progress is best measured not by the complexity of the equipment in the room, but by the care with which it is used when patients have the most to lose and the most to gain.