Elementor #539

About Us

Global Rhinology Network is a registered academic non-profit organisation with a mission to foster surgical training in the field of Rhinology and Skull Base surgery. The concept of the organisation has evolved through an annual international live surgical webcast. The LIONESS established by Mr. Ashok Rokade with the strong support of participating surgeons in association with the lauded LION foundation. Prof. Christos Georgalas, Prof. Wilko Grolman, Dr. Robert Vincent, and Mr. John Oates were instrumental to see the LIONESS takeoff in 2014 and to reach surgeons from more than 40 countries.

GR-ESS 2020 is a new GRN endeavor established with strong support of our scientific organising committee and by leading surgical trainers coming together to benefit surgeons from around the world with their expertise and in turn to benefit our patients. We hope GR-ESS would provide a valuable education in current COVID pandemic and even after.

GR-ESS 2020 will be webcast under the guidance of Prof. Wilko Grolman of Global Telemedicine Studio, the Netherlands.

Team GRN

Mr. Ashok Rokade
Mr Ashok Rokade  

Founder and Principal Host, Winchester, UK

Scientific advisory committee

Prof. Christos Georgalas
Prof. Christos Georgalas

Athens, Greece

Prof. James Palmer

Philadelphia, USA

Ass. Prof. Zara Patel

Stanford, USA

Prof. Anshul Sama

Nottingham, UK

Organising committee

Mr. Ashok Rokade
Mr Ashok Rokade  

Winchester, UK

Prof. Christos Georgalas
Prof. Christos Georgalas

Athens, Greece

Medical Technology Advisor

Lion Foundation Advisors

Consultant ENT, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester & Wessex Neurology Centre, University Hospital, Southampton, UK. He has undertaken advanced surgical fellowships in Nottingham and Wessex. His main areas of interest are rhinology, facial plastics and anterior skull base surgeries. He is the director of Wessex ENT courses and also a founder host of annual Global live sinus surgical webcast, The LIONESS established since 2014. He has further led the foundation of Global Rhinology Network, bringing leaders in the specialty together to foster surgical education around the world digitally. He has been nominated by ENT UK for a BACO Outstanding trainer award 2020.

He is the head of ENT department at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Chair of ENT at the University of Barcelona and University of Valencia. He is the Vice-President of the Spanish Society of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery(2018-2021).He is also the Editor-in-chief of European Archives of ORL since May 2016. He was the Past-President (2015-2017) of Confederation of the European Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.

He has a keen interest in Endoscopic Sinus & Skull Base Surgery. He has 

more than 200 indexed national and international scientific publications and 17 books of otolaryngology. He has been invited to more than 400 national and international scientific events.

Christos Georgalas  PhD, DLO, MRCS, FRCS(ORL-HNS)  graduated with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Athens  and trained in Otolaryngology in London (North Thames Rotation). He completed a rhinology/facial plastic  fellowship in Hopital Lariboisiere, Paris and Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, where he was appointed as faculty  from 2007 to 2015. During that time he created and directed (with dr van Furth, Neurosurgeon)  the first Endoscopic Skull Base Centre in Netherlands (ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Centre, Amsterdam), a multi disciplinary Centre involving AMC, Vrij Universiteit Medical Center and National Cancer Institute, and. He has more than 120 peer reviewed publications with more than 5000 citations (Web of  Science ) and a H-factor of 27 (Scopus) . He is the editor of the textbook “Rhinology and Skull Base surgery” and “Approaches to the Frontal sinus” by Thieme as well as written chapters in a number of  international books. He has been an invited speaker and surgical tutor in international courses and workshops in more than 40 countries, and given more than 1000 lectures, both nationally and internationally.  He is the editor of International Consensus Statement: Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid  Rhinorrhea and was one of the authors of EPOS (European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis) and  the American Task Force of Rhinosinusitis Guidelines as well as the Anatomy and Terminology of Sinus surgery position paper. He serves in the International Editorial Board for Clinical Otolaryngology as well as the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy and was the National representative for Netherland at the European Rhinology Society from 2010 to 2015.   He is secretary of the Greek Rhinology Society and a founding member and general secretary of the Hellenic Society of Head and Neck Oncology. He is currently working in Athens,  in ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Athens in  Hygeia Hospital,  as well as a tenured Professor  at St Georges Medical School Program at Nicosia University, Cyprus, as well as the MSc Rhinology , University of Patras and the MSc Program of Neuroanatomy, Department of Anatomy and Department of Neurosurgery, University of Athens. He had supervised (and is currently supervising) a number of Doctorate (PhD) thesis, MSc Thesis and MD Thesis, while also creating and organizing (with Ashok Rokade) LION-ESS (Live International Otolaryngology Network – Endoscopic Sinus Surgery), a webcast of Live surgery linked with LION , from multiple centers of excellence around the world.

Professor of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Fellowship Director, Rhinology and Skull Base Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

Director, Division of Rhinology, Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

Physician, Penn Center for Cranial Base Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

Co-Director, Penn Center for Cranial Base Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

Director of Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery and an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery at Stanford University Medical Center. She completed her residency training in otolaryngology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY and fellowship training in rhinology and endoscopic skull base surgery at Stanford University. She is an expert in advanced endoscopic sinus and skull base surgery. 

She is immediate past-Chair of the Education Committee and now Member of the Board of Directors for the American Rhinologic Society and has developed a multitude of educational materials for both physicians and patients to help them better understand rhinologic disorders. 

Dr Patel has published widely in topics such as avoiding complications in endoscopic sinus surgery, chronic rhinosinusitis in the immunosuppressed patient population, new devices and techniques for endoscopic skull base surgery, and olfactory dysfunction.

Anshul Sama, FRCS, is a consultant and Honorary Professor at Loughborough University, UK. He completed clinical fellowship in Rhinology at Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia. He practices exclusively in the field of Rhinology with a special interest in Frontal Sinus Surgery, Endoscopic Skull base surgery and Sleep disordered breathing. He is an ex- council member of the British Rhinology Society and ENT UK, and the past secretary of the Rhinology section of Royal Society of Medicine. He has been the section editor in Rhinology for Current Opinions in Otorhinolaryngology since 2009, and ENT Masterclass since 2008. He organises many annual teaching courses – Nottingham Advanced Frontal sinus surgery, Nottingham Facial Plastic Surgery, Copenhagen-Nottingham ENT Dissection course, Nottingham BEST course and many others. He has published in the areas of Frontal sinus and Image Guidance in Endoscopic sinus surgery.

Consultant ENT, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester & Wessex Neurology Centre, University Hospital, Southampton, UK. He has undertaken advanced surgical fellowships in Nottingham and Wessex. His main areas of interest are rhinology, facial plastics and anterior skull base surgeries. He is the director of Wessex ENT courses and also a founder host of annual Global live sinus surgical webcast, The LIONESS established since 2014. He has further led the foundation of Global Rhinology Network, bringing leaders in the specialty together to foster surgical education around the world digitally. He has been nominated by ENT UK for a BACO Outstanding trainer award 2020.

Christos Georgalas  PhD, DLO, MRCS, FRCS(ORL-HNS)  graduated with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Athens  and trained in Otolaryngology in London (North Thames Rotation). He completed a rhinology/facial plastic  fellowship in Hopital Lariboisiere, Paris and Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, where he was appointed as faculty  from 2007 to 2015. During that time he created and directed (with dr van Furth, Neurosurgeon)  the first Endoscopic Skull Base Centre in Netherlands (ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Centre, Amsterdam), a multi disciplinary Centre involving AMC, Vrij Universiteit Medical Center and National Cancer Institute, and. He has more than 120 peer reviewed publications with more than 5000 citations (Web of  Science ) and a H-factor of 27 (Scopus) . He is the editor of the textbook “Rhinology and Skull Base surgery” and “Approaches to the Frontal sinus” by Thieme as well as written chapters in a number of  international books. He has been an invited speaker and surgical tutor in international courses and workshops in more than 40 countries, and given more than 1000 lectures, both nationally and internationally.  He is the editor of International Consensus Statement: Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid  Rhinorrhea and was one of the authors of EPOS (European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis) and  the American Task Force of Rhinosinusitis Guidelines as well as the Anatomy and Terminology of Sinus surgery position paper. He serves in the International Editorial Board for Clinical Otolaryngology as well as the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy and was the National representative for Netherland at the European Rhinology Society from 2010 to 2015.   He is secretary of the Greek Rhinology Society and a founding member and general secretary of the Hellenic Society of Head and Neck Oncology. He is currently working in Athens,  in ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Athens in  Hygeia Hospital,  as well as a tenured Professor  at St Georges Medical School Program at Nicosia University, Cyprus, as well as the MSc Rhinology , University of Patras and the MSc Program of Neuroanatomy, Department of Anatomy and Department of Neurosurgery, University of Athens. He had supervised (and is currently supervising) a number of Doctorate (PhD) thesis, MSc Thesis and MD Thesis, while also creating and organizing (with Ashok Rokade) LION-ESS (Live International Otolaryngology Network – Endoscopic Sinus Surgery), a webcast of Live surgery linked with LION , from multiple centers of excellence around the world.
Christos Georgalas  PhD, DLO, MRCS, FRCS(ORL-HNS)  graduated with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Athens  and trained in Otolaryngology in London (North Thames Rotation). He completed a rhinology/facial plastic  fellowship in Hopital Lariboisiere, Paris and Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, where he was appointed as faculty  from 2007 to 2015. During that time he created and directed (with dr van Furth, Neurosurgeon)  the first Endoscopic Skull Base Centre in Netherlands (ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Centre, Amsterdam), a multi disciplinary Centre involving AMC, Vrij Universiteit Medical Center and National Cancer Institute, and. He has more than 120 peer reviewed publications with more than 5000 citations (Web of  Science ) and a H-factor of 27 (Scopus) . He is the editor of the textbook “Rhinology and Skull Base surgery” and “Approaches to the Frontal sinus” by Thieme as well as written chapters in a number of  international books. He has been an invited speaker and surgical tutor in international courses and workshops in more than 40 countries, and given more than 1000 lectures, both nationally and internationally.  He is the editor of International Consensus Statement: Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid  Rhinorrhea and was one of the authors of EPOS (European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis) and  the American Task Force of Rhinosinusitis Guidelines as well as the Anatomy and Terminology of Sinus surgery position paper. He serves in the International Editorial Board for Clinical Otolaryngology as well as the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy and was the National representative for Netherland at the European Rhinology Society from 2010 to 2015.   He is secretary of the Greek Rhinology Society and a founding member and general secretary of the Hellenic Society of Head and Neck Oncology. He is currently working in Athens,  in ESA - Endoscopic Skull Base Athens in  Hygeia Hospital,  as well as a tenured Professor  at St Georges Medical School Program at Nicosia University, Cyprus, as well as the MSc Rhinology , University of Patras and the MSc Program of Neuroanatomy, Department of Anatomy and Department of Neurosurgery, University of Athens. He had supervised (and is currently supervising) a number of Doctorate (PhD) thesis, MSc Thesis and MD Thesis, while also creating and organizing (with Ashok Rokade) LION-ESS (Live International Otolaryngology Network – Endoscopic Sinus Surgery), a webcast of Live surgery linked with LION , from multiple centers of excellence around the world.