Surgeons launch robotics society
OB/GYN News, Sept, 2009 by Mary Ellen Schneider
In Memphis, a small group of surgeons from across several specialties has teamed up to advance the use of robotic surgical techniques.
The Memphis Robotic Surgery Society, which grew out of informal chats in the doctors’ lounges of Memphis hospitals, was officially incorporated as a medical professional society over the summer. The founding members of the organization believe it is the first robotics surgery society in the country.
So far the organization has about 60 members from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The surgeons who make up the membership of the group have several goals: offering professional medical education, establishing a database plastic surgery reno nevada of outcomes data, and spreading the word about the benefits of robotic surgery. But one of the main aims of the group is simply to learn from one an-other, said Dr. Edward Stanford, the society’s treasurer and chief of urogynecology and female pelvic medicine at the University of Tennessee in Memphis.
The multispecialty society includes members from across the surgical community–gynecology, urogynecology, urology, cardiovascular surgery, ENT surgery, colorectal surgery, and anesthesiology. This type of collaboration is especially important in a new field with constantly changing technology, he said. The society creates an environment where a urologist can easily share tips and tricks for a new device with a cardiovascular surgeon.
“It’s a new area of medicine, and we’re in a learning and growth phase,” Dr