As robotic surgery becomes more widely used, today’s medical students are at the forefront of exploring the intricacies of this technology.
“For students, being aware of the technology that is coming down the track is vital. Because the reality is that by the time most of today’s medical students are in practice, robotics is going to be very much part of their day-to-day professional life,” says Dr Helen Mohan, Senior Lecturer, Surgery at the University of Melbourne and robotic and colorectal surgeon at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
“It is an exciting time for robotics and surgery. Internationally, robotics have become more established in the delivery of minimally invasive surgery with a number of applications. We’re converting operations that would have traditionally been done open into being done with minimally invasive surgery, and for operations that would have been done laparoscopically, robotic surgery adds further precision.”
“They get a chance to come across to IMRA and learn some of the theory behind robotic surgery, including not just the technical factors but how robotic surgery changes some of the non-technical factors and how we approach surgery, and they also get to do hands-on simulation with models we are developing,” says Dr Mohan.
Students gain hands-on experience performing surgery at IMRA using synthetic hydrogel-based models with realistic ‘tissue’ that can be burned, cut, stapled and stitched.
The University of Melbourne program highlights key non-technical skills required for effective robotic surgery. Captain Matthew Gray, former Director of Training at Qantas, delivers part of this curriculum.
“There are differences in how you communicate with robotic surgery. In traditional surgery, a lot of communication is non-verbal, but when you have a robotic operation, a lot of communication has to be converted from non-verbal to verbal. You have to be more explicit with your team,” says Dr Mohan.
“The aviation industry has substantially reduced its rate of accidents that were due to non-technical factors and modifiable errors. We’ve tried to learn from aviation by explicitly teaching situational awareness and communication in a robotic surgery setting and the Discovery module helps students become cognisant of the human factors around robotic surgery.”
Engaging medical students across all backgrounds to see the technology in robotic surgery has increased some of the students’ enthusiasm and inspired them.
More private and public hospitals across Australia are now becoming equipped with robotic technology. Dr Mohan believes this momentum will continue to build, which is why medical students interested in surgery must become familiar with the various robotic operating platforms entering clinical practice.
Dr Mohan says robotic surgery is well established at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. “It has been active for over a decade to treat colorectal cancer,” she says. “I’m most excited by the advantages for functional outcomes.
“In the future, I think there will be robots in every operating theatre and increasingly we are training people to be adaptable to whichever robot their hospital introduces,” says Dr Mohan.
“It’s important that when [surgical trainees] find themselves with access to a robot that they are fully equipped to maximise the time and benefit they get from that by having done their training, so they can hit the ground running.”