Doctors learn the team approach in robotic surgery

Doctors at smaller, community hospitals are embracing new technology, but sometimes need a boost.

St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids is helping in one area with its robotic surgery program.

Visiting doctors are learning about robotic surgery with the hospital's new $1.9 million dual console.

Six doctors from Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa were in Cedar Rapids this week to watch Dr. Jerry Rozeboom perform surgery at the hospital.

Rozeboom with OB/GYN Associates, PC. in Cedar Rapids has performed nearly 300 gynecologic robotic procedures.

St. Luke's was recently named a Robotic Epicenter by Intuitive Surgical, makers of the da Vinci robotic system. The hospital is one of 15 with the designation in the United States.

John Kays, sales manager for Intuitive, said visits are one of several steps surgeons take before using robotic systems at their own facility.

Visiting surgeons don't have the staff or salaries larger hospitals have and need to see the process in use at a successful hospital before they make the investment, Kays said.

“Da Vinci surgery is not just about a surgeon. It's about a team,” he said. “They can model what they see.”

Rozeboom and others in the program can also become mentors for visiting surgeons.

Using the dual console, Dr. Afshin Malaki of Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames and other doctors could watch what Rozeboom was seeing during a hysterectomy.

Malaki said the visit was helpful as the Ames hospital looks into getting its own robotic system.

While he already had robotic surgery training, Malaki said he was interested in seeing the operational perspective of St. Luke's program.

Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke's in Cedar Rapids and Mercy Iowa City and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City all use da Vinci robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery.

The equipment allows surgeons to perform precise movements in small spaces.

Surgeons sit at a computer console and use hand controls to manipulate long, narrow, surgical instruments through the tiny incisions.

The console offers a three-dimensional view and magnification inside the patient's body.

Dr. David Bender, co-director of the robotic surgery program at UI Hospitals and Clinics, said use of robotic surgery has risen since the hospital began using the system in 2002 with more than 1,270 procedures performed there.

The UI is a teaching hospital, which trains surgeons in open and laparoscopic, or minimally invasive surgery, before they move on to learning robotic surgery, he said.