Indian-American doctor trains peers in robot-assisted surgery

Washington, Sep 3  An India-American doctor has been training his peers in robotics-assisted surgery as part of a programme that draws surgeons from all over the US, a media report said.

Kirpal Singh, a surgeon at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital in Illinois, has so far performed about 450 operations using the $2 million da Vinci robot. 

He is the driving force behind the Surgery 101 programme of the Indianapolis hospital, which is one of about 25 epicentres of training in robotics-assisted surgery in the US, the Tri-Valley Dispatch reported on Wednesday.

"Dr Singh is quite the expert in this field," said Anand Patel, a surgeon with Union Associated Physicians Clinic, Indiana. "He's a very good teacher. He's very patient."

Singh himself started using the robot for surgeries about three years ago. "The robot is a tool to do the same thing that you did," he was quoted as saying.

The Indian-origin doctor said that trainees were not allowed to participate in any of the actual surgeries. 

Some of the benefits of robotics-assisted surgery include smaller incisions that significantly lower the chance of wound infections; shorter post-surgical hospital stays; and a significantly reduced chance of developing a hernia post-surgery, he said.