Prof. Eugene Ek is a fellowship-trained shoulder, elbow and hand surgeon, specialising in arthroscopic and reconstructive surgery of the upper extremity. He has been with the Melbourne Orthopaedic Group since September 2013. He received his medical degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne and also completed a PhD in bone tumour biology at the University of Melbourne for research in to osteosarcomas. As part of the RACS Surgeon Scientist program (PhD/FRACS), Eugene completed his orthopaedic training through the Australian Orthopaedic Association and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 2010.

Prof. Ek undertook further subspecialty fellowship training in shoulder, elbow and hand surgery, including 12 months as an Honorary Hand surgery fellow at St. Vincent’s and Dandenong Hospitals in Melbourne.

He then continued his training overseas, completing a 6 month clinical fellowship in shoulder and elbow surgery at the Balgrist University Hospital, in Zurich, Switzerland. This was followed by a further 6 month fellowship in shoulder surgery at the Harvard Shoulder Service, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA.  Both these complementary shoulder fellowships focused on advanced arthroscopic surgery and complex reconstruction of the shoulder.

Prof. Ek then went on to the Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical School in New York, where he completed a 12 month fellowship in hand, upper extremity and microsurgery.

In 2019, he was selected as the Shoulder and Elbow Society of Australia (SESA) Travelling Fellow to the Korean Arthroscopy Society (KAS). And in 2020, he was awarded the prestigious ABC Travelling Fellowship to the USA and Canada, representing the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA).

Prof. Ek continues to be active in both teaching and in clinical and biomechanical research. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed research articles and multiple book chapters and has been a frequent presenter at local, national and international conferences. He has most recently been awarded the John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship for 2025, which is the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ (RACS) most prestigious research scholarship, which recognises outstanding contributions to the advancement of surgery or fundamental scientific research in their active field of work.

He is a co-supervisor of the Melbourne Orthopaedic Group Shoulder/Upper limb Fellowship and also the Dandenong Hand Fellowship programs, which trains surgeons from around Australia and all over the world.

Most recently, he graduated from a 12 month postgraduate Surgical Leadership Program (SLP18-19) at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

His current academic appointments are at the Austin Hospital, University of Melbourne and at Dandenong Hospital, Monash University, where he holds the position of Professor (Adj. Clinical) within the Department of Surgery, Monash University.