Courtney Green Awarded CESERT Robotic Grant from Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Foundation

Courtney A. Green, M.D., research fellow in the General Surgery Residency program, has been awarded a CSERT (Center for Excellence in Surgical Education, Research and Training) grant from the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Foundation. Her research project is entitled, “Investigation into the Perceptual Expertise of a Robotic Surgeon: How do we learn to feel what we see?“

Surgical education grants are among the most difficult to obtain. Moreover, this grant has historically been awarded to faculty affiliated with academic institutions, underscoring Dr. Green's achievement here as a resident. Patricia O'Sullivan, Ed.D., Director of Research and Development in Medical Education in the Center for Faculty Educators, and professor of surgery and medicine, has been Dr. Green's mentor in this project. 

Training residents to use robotic technology in a unique and complex robotic learning environment has become an existential teaching challenge. 

Between 2015 and 2018, Dr. Green has focused on robotic education. She designed and implemented a 7-year longitudinal curriculum for surgical residents, which includes six hospitals, seven robots and numerous surgical faculty. The curriculum incorporates online modules, docking proficiency, simulation evaluation, annual tissue labs and opportunity for FDA approved Qualification Equivalent Certification at time of graduation.

Standing on the shoulders of that experience, Dr. Green, as principal investigator on the CSERT Robotic Grant, now seeks to elucidate perceptual expertise by investigating expert surgeons’ gestures and language used to describe video of surgical procedures to better understand the components of professional vision required to master surgical technique.

Read full abstract at Resident Reseach website

Robotics in the Department of Surgery (Inside Surgery)

Annual Fall Dry Robotic Teaching Session for General Surgery Residents at UCSF Parnassus
Pictured left to right, Emily Huang, MD, MA, Former UCSF General Surgery Resident & Clinical Instructor, now Colorectal Fellow at University of Chicago, Patricia O'Sullivan, Ed.D., Director of Educational Development and Professor, Department of Surgery, Courtney A. Green, M.D., General Surgery Resident, Surgical Education Research Fellow, Resident Robotic Curriculum Coordinator, and Johannes R. Kratz, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery, Director, Advanced Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery, Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery