AIIMS starts surgical robotics training facility

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi on Tuesday started surgical robotics training facility at the SET facility. The SET is an acronym for Skill, e-learning and Telemedicine facility. Envisaged almost 5 years ago as a central facility harboring the above three tenets of medical education and training, the facility has a skill lab, WET lab, dedicated airway lab, ultrasound room and three studios, said the hospital.

This is a public private partnership between AIIMS New Delhi and India Medtronic Private Limited. Conceptualized and set up under the vision of Prof M Srinivas, Director, AIIMS New Delhi, the center will provide surgeons with best-in-class training in robotic-assisted surgery. The beginning of this facility places the institute once again on the global map as AIIMS New Delhi is the only government funded medical institution to offer simulation based robotic training in this part of the world, the hospital said.

The hospital said that the partnership will bring together novel technology and decades of surgical expertise at AIIMS, New Delhi to train surgeons nationwide and expand access to the benefits of RAS. The RAS is an emerging medical technology that can help standardize surgical procedures and enable surgeons in performing complex surgeries.

The training center will offer a broad spectrum of training to enhance the knowledge and skill set in RAS, ranging from basic skills training to procedural training to more advanced and specialized areas in soft-tissue surgery. The training will help impart procedural knowledge skills using surgical robotics among surgeons, fellows, and residents from across the country.

“Setting up a robotic surgery training facility at AIIMS New Delhi puts the institution as well as the nation on the world map by being one of its kind centers in a government aided medical institution to impart such training in this part of the world. AIIMS has always been at the forefront of improving patient’s access to quality care and setting up of the surgical robotics training center is a step in that direction”, said the hospital.