Franca Melfi is a Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical School of the University of Pisa and Chair of Robotic Multidisciplinary Centre for Surgery – Thoracic MIS and Robotic surgery at the University Hospital of Pisa. Pioneer in the field of robotic surgery, she performed the first robotic procedure for the treatment of lung cancer in 2001. Since then, she has dedicated her professional life to the application of robotic surgery in the thoracic field. Her activity focuses on clinical research and training, particularly on the standardization of robotic thoracic procedures and on the application of new technologies for the treatment of lung cancer, mediastinal pathologies and surgical training with the dissemination of her expertise acquired during her 20-year long experience to the next generation of thoracic robotic surgeons. The Multispecialty Robotic Centre of which she has the honour to lead is, in fact, home to University Masters and European accredited training courses. Presently, Professor Melfi is engaged in several research projects at the University of Pisa, in collaboration with other clinical institutions focusing on the application of high technology for the development of precision medicine in the thoracic field through the implementation of surgical planning with 3D reconstruction and the intra-operative detection of micro-metastasis and the development of surgical physical simulators.
