The Women in Thoracic Surgery (WTS) and Intuitive Surgical, Inc. have partnered to create a unique opportunity in advanced robotic training for mid career female thoracic surgeons. The overarching goals are to establish a mentoring relationship for a female robotic surgeon and assist her in growing her robotic surgical practice. WTS encourages mid career surgeons to consider this exceptional opportunity to enrich their surgical skill set.
Thank You to
for Support of this Scholarship and the WTS!
Award Overview
Since 2017, the WTS-Intuitive Robotic Fellowship has supported female general thoracic surgeons and their surgical assistant to participate in mentoring/case observations, robotics training, webinars, and other mentoring opportunities. This year’s program will provide training for mid-career attending surgeons over the course of several months through the Intuitive Technical Training Pathway (TTP). 3 Webinars will be dispersed between training sessions, case observations and a final capstone event.
Mandatory Training Components
The following training is required to complete the course.
- Da Vinci® TR 300 course (Advanced Lobectomy, Foregut) and TR 400 (Segmentectomy)
- Case observation with your Intuitive Representative
- Proctoring (in person or remote) with a mentor from the WTS faculty
- Record and Review of at least two full length procedure videos. The procedure can done on a dual console with another surgeon on the main console.
- Download and sign up for My Intuitive app through the App Store for an automatic record of your procedures as well as your training. Sign into your surgeon console on the da Vinci Xi for your data to sync automatically.
- Case minimums:
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- In order to maximize your learning from the courses, techniques demonstrated at case observations and proctoring, a minimum of 15 cases will be required to proceed to the next training course. Please record at least one case prior to a case observation.
Eligibility
Women thoracic surgeons board eligible or certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery (ABTS) or equivalent Canadian, European, or Asian certifying body, with >50% practice in general thoracic surgery, and the completion of TR200 or equivalent training through their institution or a society led program. Applicants must also have access to the Da Vinci Xi® robotic system at their institution and must be doing a minimum of 13 cases in a quarter with the system.
Currently, the Intuitive Robotic Fellowship is only available to women surgeons practicing in the United States.
Application deadline has been extended to April 22, 2024 at 11.59 PM PT.
The following materials are required:
- Applicant’s up-to-date Curriculum Vitae
- Letter of support from the chair, service chief and/or hospital administration, which documents access the recipient will have to Da Vinci Xi® robotic system on at least a weekly basis (min one robotic block per week).
- Narrative explaining how this experience will impact you, your thoracic surgery practice, and your plan to grow the robotic program at your institution.
- Statement of qualification, acknowledging that you have read and meet the criteria for eligibility for this award.
Interested applicants should send all required documents noted above in pdf or word format via email to wts@wtsnet.org. Please provide one Zip file with all your documents. Letters of support must reference the name of the applicant. The email subject line should state: “WTS/Intuitive Fellowship Application”. Incomplete applications will not be considered.