The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will soon start the country’s first training center for robotic surgery in Delhi. The Institute has planned to float an Expression Of Interest (EOI) to invite manufacturers of robotic surgery systems to develop training facilities across its campuses. 

Office of the Director, Dr M Srinivas issued an order stating that the Institute will provide 500 sqft of space across its campuses, including the main hospital, academic spaces, cadavers, tissues, and pool of trained faculty, for the training facility. The new facility will come up in three to six months. It would run on a no-profit-or-loss principle.  

According to the order, the Institute has an adequate number of master trainers who would be able to impart training to the doctors in minimally invasive surgery discipline. The facility will be open to doctors from the Institute and other healthcare facilities in the country. 

Indian doctors normally choose robots surgery training in the USA, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia. Robotic surgery is an innovation in modern surgery. It continues to evolve with advances in haptic feedback, machine learning, AI and training, and robotics. 

The doctors believe that the first-of-its-kind facility in India will help stem the rising number of junior medicos leaving the training programs to train overseas for specialty training. The move will save time and resources for aspiring surgeons willing to learn robotic surgery discipline by not opting for foreign nations for the training.  

Also, it will aid in equipping surgical trainees with advanced technological robotic skills to meet the ever-evolving patient needs in India. So far, robotic surgery is available in the urology and general surgery department of the Institute. The new surgical block of AIIMS will function using state-of-the-art robotic machines.