Ned Abraham

Ned Abraham
Born	(1961-11-11) November 11, 1961 Alexandria, Egypt
Occupation(s)	Surgeon, Clinical academic
Years active	1992–present
Known for	General and colorectal surgery, academic contributions to surgery

Ned Abraham (originally named Nedeem Ibrahim, born on November 11, 1961) held the position of Associate Professor in surgery at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. He is a specialist in general and colorectal surgery, a clinical academic, and a retired officer of the Australian Army Reserve. Abraham has delivered presentations at conferences worldwide spanning four continents and has nearly two thousand citations for his scholarly contributions to general, colorectal, and academic surgery. He currently maintains his surgical practice in both Coffs Harbour, NSW, and Hamilton, Victoria.

Early life

Abraham was born on 11 November 1961 in Alexandria, Egypt into a traditional family environment. His early experiences with regional conflicts played a role in shaping his determination to pursue a career in surgery. In 1979, he gained admission to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alexandria.

Education, qualifications and career

Due to financial limitations, Abraham was unable to pursue medical studies in the United Kingdom or the United States. Instead, he completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery with Honours at the University of Alexandria in 1985. The following year, he served with the Egyptian Army’s mine disposal unit before moving to Australia via stops in the UK and New Zealand.

Beginning his medical career as an intern and resident medical officer in Tasmania in 1992, Abraham advanced to roles at Royal Darwin Hospital in 1993 and subsequently at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1995 to 2006. While working during this period, he earned a Master of Medicine specializing in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Sydney in 1998. He also embarked on advanced surgical training, becoming the first overseas-trained doctor from a non-English speaking background without prior specialist status to be accepted into the general surgical training program at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

In 1995, Abraham joined the Australian Army Reserve, participating in deployments to Bougainville, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. He was awarded his surgical fellowship in 2003 by Mrs Anne Kolbe—the world’s first female president of a college of surgeons—and subsequently became a member of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand.

That same year, he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After serving as Surgical Superintendent at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Abraham relocated to Coffs Harbour where he took on a Senior Lecturer role at UNSW Faculty of Medicine while practicing colorectal and general surgery across both public and private healthcare settings.

In 2008, he obtained a PhD in Surgery from the University of Sydney. The following year, he was promoted to Associate Professor within UNSW’s Rural Medical School—marking him as the first clinical academic to achieve this rank there.

In 2020, Abraham publicly drew attention to notable shortcomings within the healthcare system, which attracted media coverage. After disagreements with NSW Health administration—including involvement in disciplinary proceedings—he resigned following an extended dispute that included regulatory oversight. Official records reveal that he consented to limitations on performing certain rectal cancer surgeries. Despite these obstacles, Abraham continues to provide general and colorectal surgical services throughout New South Wales and Victoria.

Publications and research

In 2021, Abraham released his debut book focusing on bullying and harassment within healthcare environments, titled The Clinical Justice System. The following year, he published his second work, Simple Answers to the Big Questions, which explored the beginnings of life and the universe. In 2023, his third book, Scientific Lies, examined dishonesty prevalent in scientific research.

Abraham has contributed over forty scholarly articles and abstracts, and presented at more than forty conferences both nationally and internationally in countries including Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, Croatia, Italy, Thailand, and the United States. His research has been cited close to two thousand times. His expertise encompasses designing and executing systematic reviews, case-control studies, a randomized controlled trial in surgery, a prospective clinical trial, as well as cohort studies.

His innovative investigations include the first-ever systematic review and prospective study analyzing reasons why eligible patients do not enroll in surgical randomized trials; conducting the inaugural surgical randomized controlled trial at Royal Darwin Hospital; performing the first prospective comparative study on myocardial damage following aortic aneurysm repair; alongside several pioneering meta-analyses comparing different surgical techniques. Among these achievements are the first meta-analysis evaluating short-term outcomes after laparoscopic colon cancer surgery and the initial direct comparison between meta-analyses of randomized versus non-randomized studies.

Between 2007 and 2013, Abraham was interviewed multiple times by ABC Radio NSW, 2CS Radio, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Review, and National Channel 7 News to discuss health issues at local and national levels. Additionally, his letters were formally presented in the NSW Parliament in May 2008.

One of Abraham's papers was recognized in a 2018 publication as being among the 100 Most Influential Manuscripts in Laparoscopic Surgery history.

Awards

His accolades include Best Paper Awards at Surgical Grand Rounds held at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1997; The Trevor Taylor Prize awarded by Royal Darwin Hospital in both 1994 and 1995; as well as The Patron's Prize bestowed by the Medical Board of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1995.

Fellowships

• Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
• Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (awarded September 2004)
• Member of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia & New Zealand (CSSANZ)
• Member within the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery at RACS
• Member of General Surgeons Australia (GSA)
• Participant on the NSW & ACT Regional Subcommittee Board for General Surgery
• Former Supervisor for Basic & Advanced Surgical Training (Retired)
• Member of the Oncology Group (Colorectal) at NSW Cancer Institute

Personal life

Abraham is father to two sons: David Marcus Abraham and Daniel Jonathan Abraham.

Selected works

• Selby WS, Griffin S, Abraham N, Solomon MJ. "Appendectomy protects against ulcerative colitis development but does not influence its progression." The American Journal of Gastroenterology. 2002;97(11):2834–8.
• Abraham N, Selby W, Lazarus R, Solomon M. "Is smoking an indirect risk factor for ulcerative colitis? An age- and sex-matched case-control study." Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 2003;18(2):139–46.
• Waugh K, Abraham N, Solomon M. "Angiographic intervention for diagnosis and treatment of acute unstable lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage." Australasian Radiology. 2003;47(2):A7-9.
• Abraham N, Eyers A, Pathma-Nathan N. "Acute diverticular phlegmon occurring in colonic neovagina." ANZ Journal of Surgery. 2004;74(9):809–10.
• Abraham NS. "Meta-analysis on short-term outcomes following laparoscopic colectomy for colorectal cancer." ANZ Journal of Surgery. 2004.
• Abraham NS, Young JM, Solomon MJ. "Meta-analysis examining short-term results after laparoscopic colorectal cancer resection." British Journal of Surgery. 2004;91(9):1111–24.
• Abraham N, Lemech L, Sandroussi C, Sullivan D, May J. "Subclinical myocardial injury comparing endovascular versus open repair of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms." Journal of Vascular Surgery. 2005;41(3):377–80.
• Abraham NS, Young JM, Solomon MJ. "Systematic review on reasons why eligible patients do not enroll in surgical randomized controlled trials." Surgery. 2006;139(4):469–83.
• Abraham NS, Hewett P, Young JM, Solomon MJ. "Non-enrollment factors for eligible patients in the Australasian Laparoscopic Colon Cancer Study." ANZ Journal of Surgery. 2006;76(9):825-829.
• Abraham NS, Durairaj R, Young JM, Young CJ, Solomon MJ. "Comparison between historic control studies and randomized controlled trials in surgery." Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. 2006;49(8):1141–8.
• Abraham NS, Byrne CM, Young JM, Solomon MJ. "Meta-analysis of non-randomized comparative studies on laparoscopic colorectal cancer resections." ANZ Journal of Surgery. 2007;77(7):508–16.
• Abraham NS. PhD Thesis: "Methodological evaluation of non-randomized comparative studies as alternatives to randomized controlled trials in laparoscopic colorectal surgery." University of Sydney; 2008.
• Abraham NS, Byrne CJ, Young JM, Solomon MJ. "Meta-analysis demonstrates that well-designed nonrandomized surgical studies align with randomized controlled trials." Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2010;63(3):238–45.
• Article: "Five-year outcomes confirm keyhole bowel cancer surgery is safe and effective," University of Leeds News, 2010.
• Abraham N, Albayati S. "Enhanced recovery protocols accelerate postoperative recovery following colorectal resections." World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. 2011;3(1):1–6.
• Ned Abraham: "Are randomized trials truly necessary for evaluating colorectal cancer surgical techniques?" Poster #254 Tripartite Colorectal Meeting 2011.