Intuitive Surgical: Training Surgeons on the Da Vinci

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I'd like to start by asking a basic question. When a hospital purchases a robot for the first time, who needs to be trained? Who are the individuals that require training?

Let's start with the most crucial person, the surgeon for whom the robot is being installed. Typically, this surgeon receives training before the robot's installation, timed to coincide with the installation date. For instance, if I'm closing a deal on a robot today, with the expectation of finalizing it by the end of the quarter, I would have already scheduled the surgeon's training to occur just before the quarter's end. This creates a sense of urgency and prompts the surgeon to notify the executives about the need for the robot's installation so that he can start using it shortly after. Ideally, the surgeon should begin performing cases within a week of training to retain the learned skills.

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I'd like to start by asking a basic question. When a hospital purchases a robot for the first time, who needs to be trained? Who are the individuals that require training?

Once the surgeon is trained, they select a team. If it's the hospital's first robot, no one in the operating room would know how to operate it without skills drills. We show them how to set up the three components of the robot; The patient cart, the surgeon console, and then the tower that has the video source and all that kind of stuff. We show them how to set it up, where to put it, how to plug it in, how to turn the robot on, how to drape it, so how to use all the instruments, how to install and de-install instruments. So we'll teach the staff that independent of the surgeon.

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Is the training also conducted by a clinical sales representative, or is there a specific person or team responsible for that?

The process is technically referred to as an in-service, and it's primarily conducted by the clinical sales representatives. If an account is purchasing, say, 15 robots, we would involve the Genesis team. They can bring in 10 people instead of one or two, to ensure a smoother process.

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