Robotic surgical education: a collaborative approach to training postgraduate urologists and endourology fellows.
OBJECTIVE
Currently, robotic training for inexperienced, practicing surgeons is primarily done vis-à-vis industry and/or society-sponsored day or weekend courses, with limited proctorship opportunities. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of an extended-proctorship program at up to 32 months of follow-up.


METHODS
An extended-proctorship program for robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy was established at our institution. The curriculum consisted of 3 phases: (1) completing an Intuitive Surgical 2-day robotic training course with company representatives; (2) serving as assistant to a trained proctor on 5 to 6 cases; and (3) performing proctored cases up to 1 year until confidence was achieved. Participants were surveyed and asked to evaluate on a 5-point Likert scale their operative experience in robotics and satisfaction regarding their training.


RESULTS
Nine of 9 participants are currently performing robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) independently. Graduates of our program have performed 477 RALP cases. The mean number of cases performed within phase 3 was 20.1 (range, 5 to 40) prior to independent practice. The program received a rating of 4.2/5 for effectiveness in teaching robotic surgery skills.


CONCLUSIONS
Our robotic program, with extended proctoring, has led to an outstanding take-rate for disseminating robotic skills in a metropolitan community.
Department of Urologic Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, USA.
Hossein
H
Mirheydar
Marklyn
M
Jones
Kenneth S
KS
Koeneman
Robert M
RM
Sweet
D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D011468:Prostatectomy / Q000193:education* / Q000295:instrumentation; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D012371:Robotics / Q000193:education* / Q000295:instrumentation; D014572:Urology / Q000193:education*