The 2nd Annual Multispecialty Robotic Microsurgery Symposium was recently held at the Center for Advanced Medical Learning & Simulation (CAMLS) in Tampa, Florida on November 9 – 10, 2012. The meeting featured podium, poster and live surgery presentations on cutting-edge applications of robotic microsurgery across surgical subspecialties including plastics and reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, vascular surgery, urology and ear, nose and throat surgery. It further discussed training and education in robotic surgery as well as directions of future research. Organized by Sijo Parekattil, MD, Director of Robotic Surgery and Urology at Winterhaven Hospital and Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology at the University of Florida, this meeting was only the second of its kind and was attended by over 115 robotic micro-surgeons from 10 countries
Other Urology faculty members with featured presentations were Dr. Li-Ming Su, Professor of Urology and Vice-chair of the UF Department of Urology who spoke on new imaging modalities to guide minimal-invasive surgery and Mr. Thomas Crawford, MBA, FACHE, Chief Operating Office of the UF Prostate Disease Center who have a riveting talk on the challenges and promises of a rapidly changing landscape of healthcare delivery in the United States. Speaking about evidence-based surgical innovation and the IDEAL recommendations for clinical research as applied to the evolving field of robotic microsurgery was Philipp Dahm, UF Professor of Urology and Residency Program Director. The meeting adjourned a huge success that spoke to the excellent partnership of UF at Shands and Winterhaven Hospital.