In Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will shortly open the nation’s first robotic surgery training facility. The Institute intends to issue a Request for Expression of Interest (EOI) to ask robotic surgery system vendors to build training facilities across its campuses.
The Institute must provide 500 square feet of space across all of its sites, including the main hospital, academic buildings, cadavers, tissues, and a pool of qualified teachers, for the training facility, according to a directive from the Office of the Director, Dr. M. Srinivas. In three to six months, the new facility will be built. It would operate under the no-profit, no-loss philosophy.
The ruling states that the Institute has a sufficient number of master trainers who are qualified to train doctors in the area of minimally invasive surgery. Doctors from the Institute and other healthcare facilities across the nation will have access to the facility.
Indian surgeons typically prefer to train in robotic surgery in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia. Modern surgery has advanced with the use of robotics. With improvements in haptic feedback, machine learning, AI and training, and robots, it keeps evolving.
The medical professionals are hopeful that the pioneering facility in India will slow the growing trend of junior medical professionals enrolling in speciality training programs abroad. By avoiding foreign countries for the training, the decision will save time and money for ambitious surgeons seeking to master the robotic surgery specialty.
Also, it would aid in training surgical trainees with modern technical robotic skills to fulfill the ever-evolving patient needs in India. The Institute’s departments of urology and general surgery currently provide robotic surgery. Modern robotic devices will be used in the AIIMS’s new surgery block.
