General Surgery Premieres New Robotic Surgery Curriculum
August 19, 2025
Stanford’s General Surgery Residency Program has announced a new Robotic Surgery Curriculum.
“The main goals of the curriculum are to prepare everyone coming through the program to perform robotic surgery safely and effectively in his or her future career,” said Director of Robotic Education Dr. Aaron Dawes. “We wanted it to be fair, transparent, and learner-driven such that each resident knew what he or she needed to do to improve and that each faculty member felt comfortable and confident entrusting more and more of their robotic operations to our residents.”
The new curriculum’s “pre-console” phase prepares residents for robotic surgery and includes a number of requirements to be completed before a resident may sit at an active robot console, such as:
• online modules,
• in-service labs,
• simulator training requirements, and
• bedside-assist cases.
All pre-requisites are expected to be completed during the residents’ first or second year of training.
Residents will enter the console phase with more directed learning opportunities for their third and fourth years. By the end of the PGY4 year, every resident is expected to be eligible for their Intuitive Equivalency Certificate.
In addition to Dawes, Drs. Cara Liebert, Sherry Wren, Frank Lu, and Elaina Tsui will serve as the VA, Kaiser, and SCVMC faculty champions, respectively.
“We would love to hear more from each of you that performs robotic surgery and to include your insights into the curriculum as it continues to develop,” said Dawes.
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