An over-view of robot assisted surgery curricula and the status of their validation.
INTRODUCTION
Robotic surgery is a rapidly expanding field. Thus far training for robotic techniques has been unstructured and the requirements are variable across various regions. Several projects are currently underway to develop a robotic surgery curriculum and are in various stages of validation. We aimed to outline the structures of available curricula, their process of development, validation status and current utilization.


METHODS
We undertook a literature review of papers including the MeSH terms "Robotics" and "Education". When we had an overview of curricula in development, we searched recent conference abstracts to gain up to date information.


RESULTS
The main curricula are the FRS, the FSRS, the Canadian BSTC and the ERUS initiative. They are in various stages of validation and offer a mixture of theoretical and practical training, using both physical and simulated models.


DISCUSSION
Whilst the FSRS is based on tasks on the RoSS virtual reality simulator, FRS and BSTC are designed for use on simulators and the robot itself. The ERUS curricula benefits from a combination of dry lab, wet lab and virtual reality components, which may allow skills to be more transferable to the OR as tasks are completed in several formats. Finally, the ERUS curricula includes the OR modular training programme as table assistant and console surgeon.


CONCLUSION
Curricula are a crucial step in global standardisation of training and certification of surgeons for robotic surgical procedures. Many curricula are in early stages of development and more work is needed in development and validation of these programmes before training can be standardised.
['Fisher|Rebecca A|RA|', 'Dasgupta|Prokar|P|', 'Mottrie|Alex|A|', 'Volpe|Alessandro|A|', 'Khan|Mohammed S|MS|', 'Challacombe|Ben|B|', 'Ahmed|Kamran|K|']
D002983:Clinical Competence D003198:Computer Simulation D003479:Curriculum D006801:Humans D015203:Reproducibility of Results D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures D013043:Specialties, Surgical
Robotic Surgery Training Curriculum Education Urology