ColoRobotica: Structured training in robotic colorectal surgery

Abstract

The adoption of robotic surgery has increased rapidly. The robotic surgery market is projected to reach $14 billion globally by 2026, with an increasing number of robotic platforms entering the market. Structured training remains an important issue in robotic colorectal surgery. ColoRobotica at the European School of Coloproctology, the European Society of Coloproctology, was established in 2018 to benchmark robotic colorectal training in Europe. A multidisciplinary team was formed, and a framework was established. Building the infrastructure of the programme took 2 years. A training pathway was designed to provide a structured training programme with quality assurance interventions embedded in the programme. The programme was launched in 2022. Preliminary results showed clinical outcomes of trainees are comparable to those of expert robotic surgeons. The model could serve as a template for both other scientific societies and different specialties to provide structured robotic surgical training.