Saint Joseph's Health System has launched the
International College of Robotic Surgery (ICRS). The new non-profit training center for robotic surgical teams from around the world aims to provide training for all daVinci Surgical System robotic surgery specialties, beginning with intracardiac and cardiac revascularization, including TECAB.
ICRS will be led by two of the nation’s eminent robotic cardiothoracic surgeons, Douglas Murphy, MD and Sudhir Srivastava, MD.
Robotic surgery is accomplished by the use of robots and is popular for the advantages it delivers such as precision, smaller incisions, and decreased blood loss.
Saint Joseph’s Health System began their robotic-assisted surgery in 2002, and has seen tremendous benefits to patients since its launch, noted Kirk Wilson, FACHE, president and CEO of Saint Joseph's Health System.
He expects robotics to become the standard of care and said their hospital aims to help other surgeons and their surgical teams learn and actively use the technology so they can work with their hospitals to develop strong, viable programs for patients.
“ICRS will provide consistent, initial and long term support for surgical teams that isn't currently available,” says Dr. Murphy who has trained a number of surgical teams over the last five years, and found it to be tremendously expensive and time consuming task.
“Alternatively, ICRS programs will be available online and using interactive, advanced communications technology with ongoing remote proctoring support until the surgeon and his team feel confident and comfortable with the robotic system,” he informed.
Saint Joseph's is recognized as one of the 50 top hospitals in the country and is a provider of cardiac and vascular services in Atlanta. The ICRS launch was announced during the Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS) annual meeting in San Francisco.
Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
