The full-day ACS Surgeons and Engineers: A Dialogue on Surgical Simulation meeting was held virtually on March 2 with notable success. The Surgeons and Engineering Committee of the ACS Division of Education served as the Program Committee for this meeting, which attracted 110 registrants from the US and 12 other countries.
The keynote address, “20-Year Experience Teaching Medtech Innovation to Physician/Engineer Teams: Stanford Biodesign and Fogarty Innovation,” was delivered by Thomas Krummel, MD, FACS/FAAP. Dr. Krummel began his presentation with the statement, “When we bring surgeons and engineers together, good things happen,” and addressed how significant biomedical problems could be solved through successful surgeon-engineer collaboration and university and private partnerships. Dr. Krummel also shared several real-world examples of innovations that resulted from the Stanford Biodesign and Fogarty Institute partnership.
The Special Panel, “Surgeons and Engineers: Successful Collaboration,” included three experts with significant experience in productive partnerships between surgeons and engineers. The panelists included:
- Ahmed Ghazi, MD, FEBU, MPHE, associate professor of urology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, specializing in the minimally invasive treatment of urological cancers
- Suvranu De. ScD, J Erik Jonsson distinguished professor of engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he serves as head of the department of mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering (MANE) and founding director of the Center for Modeling, Simulation, and Imaging in Medicine (CeMSIM)
- Amin Madani, MD, PhD, FRCSC, DABS, endocrine and acute care surgeon, and director of the Surgical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto
A total of 52 research abstracts were received in four categories: Research, Research in Progress, Challenges in Technology-Enhanced Surgical Education, and Promoting Technology and Collaboration. Nine highly scored abstracts were presented during two live oral presentation sessions, and 27 vital abstracts were presented on a virtual poster presentation web page.
An interactive discussion session focused on the following two crucial topics involving surgeons and engineers:
- Surgical Ergonomics
- Industry Discussion: The Future of Surgical Simulation
The Surgical Ergonomics discussion group agreed that the surgeon community needed higher awareness and better messaging on the benefits of ergonomic training. Gyusung Lee, PhD, shared several action plans developed by the ACS Surgical Ergonomics Committee for helping surgeons improve their ergonomics in the OR. During the Industry Discussion session, participants discussed the important roles of simulators in surgical education and what innovations and technologies future simulators might offer for better surgical education.
The next ACS Annual Surgeons and Engineers meeting is scheduled for March 1, 2023, at the Swissôtel in Chicago, IL.
For additional information, contact Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, MAMSE, at or Gyusung I. Lee, PhD.
