Robotic Surgery

Train-the-Trainers

A trainer’s knowledge, skills, curriculum/simulator familiarity, and training experience will have an impact on the successful implementation of any curriculum. To date, there are no accepted standardized teaching methodologies for robotic trainers in most countries. ISE, therefore, hosted two international Train-the-Trainer (TTT) Consensus Conferences to bring together stakeholders from the United States and Europe including expert surgeons, educators, behavioral psychologists, representatives of surgical societies/organizations, and industry to create a standardized Train-the-Trainer approach, template, and curriculum for robotic surgery.

Consensus-driven guidelines were determined for selecting trainers and improving cognitive education, psychomotor training, training around errors, team communication, expert feedback, assessment tools, scoring systems, and remediation.

Consensus was reached in several categories that were discussed in detail including:

  1. Terminology

  2. Pre-requisites for TTT Course Selection and TTT Qualifications

  3. Objectives and Focus of a TTT Course

  4. Pre-Course Considerations

  5. Theory and Course Content

  6. Measuring Outcomes

  7. Error Avoidance, Recognition, and Treatment

  8. Task Deconstructions of the Signature Robotic Procedure from Each Specialty

 A consensus-driven error taxonomy and algorithm for error deconstruction was developed.