Med Students Are Getting Terrible Training in Robotic Surgery

March 15, 2018

(Wired) – Now add to the mix the da Vinci robotic surgery system, which operators control from across the room, precisely guiding instruments from a specially-designed console. In traditional surgery, the resident gets hands-on action, holding back tissue, for instance. Robotic systems might have two control consoles, but attendings rarely grant residents simultaneous control. According to UC Santa Barbara’s Matt Beane—who recently published a less-than-rosy report on robot training for residents—he never once saw this happen.