WCE 2019: Early Exposure to Robotic Surgery is Improving Urology Resident Robotic Skills

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) (UroToday.com) Dr. Marcio Moschovas from Advent Health Global Robotics Institute presented his poster on evaluating the outcomes of residents following participation in their annual robotic training course hosted by the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association (SES AUA). It was the objective of their study to evaluate the effectiveness of their training course over the course of several years and compare the performance of their 2019 cohort of participants to a separate group of novice robotic surgeons.

For their study, they recruited urology residents from across the southeastern section of the United States to attend a two-day robotic training course. Trainees were asked to fill out a questionnaire so that investigators could obtain information about their individual familiarity with robotic simulation, general robot experience, and time spent on the console. Following the questionnaire, each trainee was asked to complete a set of specific tasks on the Mimic Robotic Simulator while baseline scores were obtained on four specific exercises and compared across four different groups. Finally, the 2019 participants were compared to a fifth group of practicing surgeons who were new to robotics who had their skills evaluated on day 1 of a 5-day training course.

What Dr. Moschovas and his team discovered was that their 2019 resident trainees outperformed their trainees from the 2012, 2015, and 2017 cohort on every evaluated task that they tested. They believe that the positive linear progression displayed by residents that are in the earlier stage of their urological training is not dependent on simulator access or console time, but rather the training that they received during their 2-day AUA training course.

early exposure to robotic surgery

Presented by: Marcio Covas Moschovas, MD, Advent Health Global Robotics Institute, Celebration, Florida 

Written by: Andrew Shea Afyouni, BS, Junior Research Specialist and Medical Student, University of California, Irvine Department of Urology, Medical Writer for UroToday.com at the 37th World Congress of Endourology (WCE) – October 29th-November 2nd, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates