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ERUS 2018: ERUS Education Working Group on Education and Training

Marseille, France (UroToday.com) Dr. Van der Poel provided an overview of the ERUS education working group and its current endeavors.

To become an ERUS training center, there are several mandatory criteria:

  1. The center must have at least two robotic surgeons with extended experience (>250 cases performed in total + 100 robotic radical prostatectomy procedures performed in the last year)
  2. Solid scientific and practical experience in the urological robotic field is required. At least three peer-reviewed reports on robotic surgery have appeared in the last five years from the center
  3. The host center commits to train properly and allow the trainee access to the robot. They should be able to perform several urological procedures robotically in a high-volume setting.
  4. Be able to offer the participants the possibility of robotic dry lab/simulator
  5. No fee is to be asked by this center to train the fellow
  6. The host centers are willing to collaborate with ERUS and to join future prospective multicenter studies organized by ERUS
Currently, there are 39 ERUS centers in Europe and Australia. In a survey that took place in 2017 the median number of overall robot-assisted cases performed was 393 in these centers. In each center, there is a median of 4 robotic surgeons involved. There is currently a course for the trainer (Train the trainer) in ORSI academy in Belgium, which all trainers should perform.

Dr. Van der Poel next discussed the ERUS pilot project of the robotic curriculum.  This involved ten fellows and ten institutions. In August 2013 the first validated robotic curriculum in the world was formed. So far, over 40 trained robotic radical prostatectomy (RARP) ERUS fellows have been trained. A similar program is now being formed for robotic partial nephrectomy (RAPN). The biggest problem is that in contrast to RARP, most centers perform less than 50 RAPN per year, and this number needs to be raised significantly for a training program to be formulated.

Dr. Van der Poel concluded his talk and mentioned the substantial work that is being done in the ORSI academy, offering a progressive training database, training programs for novice robotic surgeons, and train the trainer programs for experienced surgeons wanting to be trainers. He requested that all centers be involved in ERUS as much as they can, to enhance the training and outcomes of robotic procedures everywhere.


Presented by: Van der Poel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Written by: Hanan Goldberg, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow (SUO), University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Twitter:@GoldbergHanan at the EAU Robotic Urology Section (ERUS) Meeting - September 5 - 7, 2018 - Marseille, France