Training Programs

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Curriculum

Dr. Erik Dutson, an assistant professor of surgery, is experienced in MIS, surgical education, augmented reality, haptic feedback, telementoring, and telesurgery.  He is heading the surgical education program designed to teach general surgery residents the fundamental knowledge and the technical skills required in laparoscopic surgery.  Bimonthly lectures and skills lab sessions are attended by the second and third year general surgery residents.  The lecture series cover topics from the basics of laparoscopic surgery to advanced laparoscopic procedures.  

The Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), a Society American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) education program, is a comprehensive, CD-ROM-based education module that includes a hands-on skills training component and assessment tool designed to teach the physiology, fundamental knowledge, and technical skills required in basic laparoscopic surgery.  This program has been endorsed by UCLA since 2005 and is used as a part of the MIS training. 

UCLA CASIT is a beta testing center for the multi-center clinical study being conducted by Dr. Gerald Fried, the developer of the FLS program, from McGill University in Montreal.  The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of training to a criterion level of performance on the FLS simulator in the operating room during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.  All third-year general surgery residents will be taking the certification examination at the end of the year to document proficiency of laparoscopic surgery skills.  The certification is conducted by the educators from SAGES.  The FLS program has been endorsed by the American College of Surgeons.  We predict, in the very near future, all general surgery residents will be required to provide objective documentation of their proficiency in laparoscopic surgical skills through this certification process as part of the graduation requirement from the residency program. Animal laboratory laparoscopic surgical training sessions provide an opportunity for the surgery residents to practice their knowledge and skills gained from the lectures and simulator training sessions.