Abstract
The objectives of the study were to describe robotic-assisted surgery training programs currently being used by ACGME-accredited obstetrics and gynecology (OB/Gyn) residency programs and to explore residents’ attitudes towards their robotic surgery training curricula to evaluate resident desire for robotics training. We conducted a cross-sectional study of OB/Gyn residents for the 2015–2016 academic year. Participants completed a 31-item online questionnaire regarding their robotic-assisted surgical training and associated perspectives. Analyses of these data were primarily descriptive. In total, 98.9% of included respondents (N = 177) reported availability of a surgical robot at their training institution, and 35.0% of participants reported not having any structured robotics training program at their institution. The most commonly used training modalities included online modules (62.2%), dual-assist console (55.1%) and virtual reality simulation (50.3%). The most commonly reported barriers to completing a robots training were a lack of personal time (56.2%) and availability of the virtual reality simulator or access to the robotic equipment (29.2%). OB/Gyn residents desire robotics training and are exposed to a wide variety of training modalities. The ACGME should consider recommending the incorporation of a standardized formal robotics training program as part of the OB/Gyn residency curriculum.
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Drs. Vetter, Hade, Fowler, Salani and Ms. Palettas declare they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Vetter, M.H., Palettas, M., Hade, E. et al. Time to consider integration of a formal robotic-assisted surgical training program into obstetrics/gynecology residency curricula. J Robotic Surg 12, 517–521 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-017-0775-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-017-0775-0