Development of a Surgical Educational Research Program—Fundamental Principles and Challenges

Mentorship Programmes for Laparoscopic and Robotic Urology

“…While efforts have been made to improve training through simulation [14], training programmes have not matched other rapid developments in the field [15]. Formalized mentorship programmes should provide successful certification of urologists by allowing them to reach required standards of competence for specific procedures [15] and would probably be used for revalidation purposes as evidence for the maintenance of skills [16]. Various organizations could participate and accredit these programmes, including the Royal College of Surgeons, BAUS, local training deaneries and individual institutions (Table 1).…”

“…Fourthly, there needs to be acceptance from specialists, which may be achieved through a comprehensive understanding of the purpose and their benefits. Fifthly, adequate time must be allocated for the programme [16]. Short training courses have shown little benefit as surgeons are often unable to implement the new skills.…”

Basic science, translational research and surgery: an unresolved controversy

“…Could the surgeon contribute to drive the results of basic science towards clinical applications in the era of genomics and proteomics? All these questions converge towards the conclusions that in the future academic surgeons will have a key role in the development of translational research program, and the surgical community needs to re-address our own vision of the research [4].…”

How to develop a simulation programme in urology

“…In the field of urology, research has shown the benefit of simulators of varying grades of fidelity, both as learning tools and also as assessment tools [4,10]. Further, there is evidence of skill transfer from the simulated environment to the operating theatre [2,8–15]. Perhaps the greatest advantage of simulation use in surgical training is its ‘ ability to provide a reusable template from which trainees can learn in a time‐independent, stress‐free manner that does not endanger patients ’[9].…”