Project director: Dr. Joseph Siu

Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical technique that has been an invaluable tool for diagnosing abdominal pathology. It can be performed not only with manually operated graspers, but also with robotic surgical systems such as the daVinci™ Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical. The novel abilities of such systems in terms of precision and efficiency have recently received great attention. However, the best methods for training surgeons in robotic laparoscopy have not been established. We are in the process of developing feedback techniques to improve performance and a virtual reality training simulator. Our work is supported by funds from the Nebraska Research Initiative. Our ultimate goal is to develop an international certificate program for surgeons training in robotic laparoscopy administered here in Omaha.

A multidisciplinary research team is also contributing to the success of
this research: Dr. Mukul Mukherjee (Motor Learning), Dr. Shi-Hyun Park
(Industrial Engineering), Dr. Manish Tiwari (Medicine), Irene H. Suh
(Computer Science, MS), Jung-Hung Chien (Mechanical Engineering, MS) and Eric Monk (Medicine). We are participating in the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology (CAST). CAST is a collaborative effort between UNO,UNMC, and the UNL to facilitate interaction and collaborative research between surgeons, physicians, life scientists, engineers, and computer scientists specifically interested in contributing to work on the advancement of surgical technology. Currently, this collaboration has resulted in several patent-pending technologies and work is continuing on other devices. Current CAST members are Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov (UNMC), Dr. Shane Farritor (UNL), Dr. Susan Hallbeck (UNL), Dr. Carl Nelson (UNL), Dr. Song Ci (UNL), Dr. Nick Stergiou (UNO), and administrator Marsha Morien (UNMC).