Implementing a robotics curriculum at an academic general surgery training program: our initial experience

Abstract

The robotic surgical platform is being utilized by a growing number of hospitals across the country, including academic medical centers. Training programs are tasked with teaching their residents how to utilize this technology. To this end, we have developed and implemented a robotic surgical curriculum, and share our initial experience here. Our curriculum was implemented for all General Surgical residents for the academic year 2014-2015. The curriculum consisted of online training, readings, bedside training, console simulation, participating in ten cases as bedside first assistant, and operating at the console. 20 surgical residents were included. Residents were provided the curriculum and notified the department upon completion. Bedside assistance and operative console training were completed in the operating room through a mix of biliary, foregut, and colorectal cases. During the fiscal years of 2014 and 2015, there were 164 and 263 robot-assisted surgeries performed within the General Surgery Department, respectively. All 20 residents completed the online and bedside instruction portions of the curriculum. Of the 20 residents trained, 13/20 (65 %) sat at the Surgeon console during at least one case. Utilizing this curriculum, we have trained and incorporated residents into robot-assisted cases in an efficient manner. A successful curriculum must be based on didactic learning, reading, bedside training, simulation, and training in the operating room. Each program must examine their caseload and resident class to ensure proper exposure to this platform.

Residency Training in Robotic General Surgery: A Survey of Program Directors

“…According to older studies, most programs used experiences assisting in the operating room as the main teaching method for residents, with minimal augmentation from teaching labs and conference/didactic session [ 5 , 9 , 10 ]. The results of this study do not support this result and, along with more recent studies, found that many programs have now switched to using a combination of teaching methods to educate residents in robotics [ 14 , 15 ]. This difference may be due to the fact that robotics technology is rapidly developing, with more developed and accessible simulation training tools.…”

Short-term clinical outcomes of a European training programme for robotic colorectal surgery

“…In other specialties such as urology, training schemes for robotic surgery have been described, although there is still a recognised need for a structured, standardised curriculum and robust credentialing guidelines for proficiency [28][29][30][31][32][33]. To our knowledge, in colorectal surgery three studies discuss a training pathway for robotic surgery [18,34,35], but only include a relatively small number of surgeons and cases. This study examines the outcomes of 1130 robotic colorectal cases across 26 centres in Europe and its results suggest that the EARCS programme facilitates safe and effective training of robotic colorectal surgery while ensuring good clinical outcomes.…”

Time to consider integration of a formal robotic-assisted surgical training program into obstetrics/gynecology residency curricula

“…Approximately, 96% of participants enrolled in the curriculum successfully completed all components in 9-17 h and reached proficiency after a mean of 72 repetitions. A more recent study of implementation of a standard robotics curriculum in general surgery combined traineedirected and expert-directed learning utilizing a wide variety of training modalities [16]. Ultimately, all participants (N = 20) completed the curriculum and 65% of participants reported sitting at the surgeon console.…”