The University of Maryland Medical Center has embarked on an innovative way to teach doctors how to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures that allow patients to recover faster and leave the hospital sooner.
Laparoscopic surgery is a rapidly developing field.
Dr. Flowers is also an associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The laparoscopic technique requires learning a whole different approach, using specialized instruments, and new ways to perform the surgery, adds Dr. Flowers, who is a pioneer in laparoscopic surgery and has trained hundreds of surgeons in the technique since 1990. Rather than looking down into the body cavity, surgeons watch what they are doing on video monitors. The center, one of a few in the country, houses several monitors and instruments for hands-on training, a library of educational tapes and specialized texts and a classroom with telemedicine links to the hospital s operating room, endoscopy suite and operating rooms at other hospitals. The training center provides a valuable tool for physicians who want to learn videoscopic techniques, says Eugene Cho, M.D., assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.