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: Srikant Vallabhajosula, PhD (Mechanical Engineering), Irene H. Suh. MS (Mathematics), Jung-Hung Chien, MS (Mechanical Engineering & Computer Science Engineering), Chun-Kai Huang, MS (Rehabilitation Science), Jason Sun, ME (Electronic Engineer), Oleg Dolghi, MD (Fellow in Minimally Invasive Surgery) and Jay Unnirevi, MD (Fellow in Minimally Invasive Surgery). We are participating in the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology (CAST). CAST is a collaborative effort between UNMC, UNO, 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 the director, Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov (UNMC), Dr. Shane Farritor (UNL), Dr. Susan Hallbeck (UNL), Dr. Carl Nelson (UNL), Dr. Song Ci (UNL), Dr. Linxia Gu (UNL), Dr. Hani Haider (UNMC), Dr. Nick Stergiou (UNO), and administrator Marsha Morien (UNMC).