Dr Cameron Bell graduated from the University of Sydney in 1983 and in 1996 was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine from the same university. He is a Senior Lecturer in Medicine at Sydney University and is the current Director of Endoscopy at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, where he works as a Senior Staff Specialist. He was head of the Gastroenterology Department there for 7 years until 2012. He has been providing endoscopic procedural and consultation services in Bowral since 1994.

He is the National Lead for the National Endoscopy Training Initiative, an undertaking of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, the peak body for gastroenterologists in the country. In that role, Dr Bell has been the lead for the Train the Colonoscopist Trainer program and, as such, has taught almost 200 consultant colonoscopists (physicians and surgeons) to teach the procedure more effectively to their trainees, registrars and fellows.

Recently he has been responsible for developing and introducing two new colonoscopy quality improvement courses for NETI. These are being presented around Australia, predominantly in rural and regional settings. The latest two courses have taken place in Launceston and Townsville and involve upskilling local consultant colonoscopists, ensuring that they are up to date with what is considered to be current high quality colonoscopy procedural practice.

Dr Bell is a founding director of Bowel Cancer Australia, the country’s leading bowel cancer charity, which has recently funded a multi-million dollar Chair of Bowel Cancer Medicine at Sydney University. He is a member of the Clinical Advisory Group for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

He chaired the 2011 Cancer Council/NH&MRC guidelines on surveillance colonoscopy (for example, when to repeat colonoscopy after polyps or bowel cancer are diagnosed) and is currently chairing the working group, which is updating those guidelines. He is also Deputy Chair of the larger group which is updating the Cancer Council/NH&MRC Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Early Detection & Management of Colorectal Cancer.