Surgeon training on new device use is rigid, comprehensive, and not to be overlooked
“This is one of the rare times in my career when, right out of the gate, we have a very rigid and comprehensive way of educating and training physicians on the proper utilization of a new technology (avoiding the cart-before-the-horse phenomenon, in which a clinician is given the tools without the proper education),” said AAGL immediate past president Arnold Advincula, MD, “and it is important to underscore that.” Dr. Advincula is the Levine Family Professor, Vice-Chair of Women’s Health, and Chief of Gynecology at Sloane Women’s Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York.
Training plans
Instead of its sales force, Olympus is having surgeons train other surgeons. Clinical Education Specialists, a small, select group of individuals within the company, also will be able to train. The required training follows a rigid protocol that was validated and submitted to the FDA as part of the approval process, said Jerilyn Hitchings, Director of Procedure Marketing at Olympus. After training up to 40 surgeons in the past 3 weeks, Olympus expects to train another 100 at AAGL.
“We have strict criteria for training, including that they are advanced laparoscopists,” fulfilling a minimum number of surgeries within a 90-day period, said Hitchings.
The 1-hour training requires surgeons to perform a 4-step protocol and demonstrate unaided proficiency at training conclusion. Olympus will not sell its product to a facility until an advanced surgeon has been trained there, according to Hitchings. And many physicians are approaching their institutions inquiring about training now, she reports.
Applications for training will be submitted to the Olympus Professional Education Team for approval. “We want this to go well. We know that there are many physicians who are hoping that this becomes a good reality, and we want to make sure that it is done properly. The training process adheres to that agenda.”
Having the technology is step 1
OBG Management Board of Editors member Dr. Advincula struck an optimistic tone in his June 2016 Guest Editorial for the journal,6 indicating his belief that the “tissue morcellation pendulum,” which has swung toward non−minimally invasive approaches since 2014, can change direction. At the Olympus containment system official introduction event at AAGL, he expressed the same optimism:
“We now have technology that has the promise of being able to deliver to women a safe way to undergo tissue extraction, to undergo a minimally invasive surgical procedure. …When you combine innovation and education together, you ultimately are going to advance MIS worldwide. With all the things going on around the world today, I think it is important that women be able to have a choice, an autonomous choice with her physician. Having the technology that allows physicians to extract tissue safely, to give women the option of undergoing a minimally invasive surgery, is critically important. I look forward to seeing how we can continue to advance surgery. Partnership with clinicians and with industry, such as Olympus, is going to be key to the success of how we advance women’s health care in general.”
What do AAGL attendees have to say about it?
“It’s a good thing for the minimally invasive market,” said John B. Gebhart, MD, MS, vaginal hysterectomy representative at the star-studded Operating with the Stars event on Thursday, November 17, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
May Thomassee, MD, who practices in Lafayette, Louisiana, said that, for the past 3 years, she has been performing extracorporeal morcellation at her institution. “I think the new containment bag and morcellator devices that are attempting to be safer are a very good thing; however, my concern of introducing this new technology, such as bags, is that it may increase the cost within our health care system. We have had great success, and patients feel that they have options when we offer them—after informed consent and appropriate preoperative workup—an abdominal, vaginal, or extracorporeal morcellation approach.”
As a developer and proponent of the Extracorporeal Tissue Extraction (ExCITE) technique, Mireille Truong, MD, who demonstrated the ExCITE surgical approach with Dr. Advincula as part of the Research and Science Plenary here at AAGL, said, “I think the PneumoLiner is a great example of creativity and innovation. It’s good that we now have an FDA-approved device to offer and counsel patients as one of many options.” She added that, overall, the morcellation controversy has been “a positive experience. We have learned better as a community about how to approach new technology.”