Keesler’s robotic surgical milestone

KEESLER AFB, Miss. - The Institute for Defense Robotic Surgical Education (inDORSE) program celebrated a major milestone July 23 having trained its 100th team in robotic surgery at Keesler Air Force Base. The milestone shows how far the curriculum has come since the program first stood up in March 2017, with one robot. InDORSE has since acquired a second robot, allowing them to train Robotic Surgical Education to more military surgical teams across the Defense Department and the VA medical system. There are plans to double the size of the training program this month, and offer additional advanced courses to the curriculum. Lt. Col. Josh Tyler, 81st Surgical Operations Squadron InDORSE director, had the vision for robotic surgery training. “My idea was to … train our military surgeons in-house,” Tyler said. The site was built with collaboration from the Intuitive - the DaVinci Xi surgical robot manufacturer. Intuitive teaches the curriculum at mp cost the federal government. ” InDORSE training costs $3,500 less than industry sites and with the number of personnel trained, the educational savings is more than $1M. The in-house program also is training for nurses, technicians and surgeons. (Source: Keesler AFB 07/25/19)