UHN pioneers live-streamed robotic cancer operations as part of advanced medical education

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) has undertaken two live-streamed robotic colorectal cancer operations to support the education of surgeons.

Two local patients with colorectal cancer consented to support the event. They were operated on while their operations were live-streamed into the Cripps Education Centre at Northampton General Hospital, one on October 9, and one on October 10.

The live-streamed operations formed part of a two-day robotic surgical symposium where consultants, colorectal surgeons, and senior doctors from Northamptonshire, the rest of the UK, and Portugal, met and took part in a range of events, lectures, discussions, and presentations.

UHN – which runs both Kettering and Northampton general hospitals – arranged the event as a way of teaching its own medical teams complex robotic surgery procedures while also enabling surgeons from other areas to learn state-of-the-art surgical procedures.

The event was organised by Mr Jamil Ahmed, UHN’s Deputy Director of Medical Education, who is also a consultant colorectal surgeon and lead for robotic colorectal surgery.

He said: “We are extremely grateful to two of our cancer patients for consenting to have their robotic operations streamed live into the surgical symposium in a totally anonymous way through close-ups of their surgery.

“This is a very powerful way of giving doctors an experience and ability to learn and watch robotic surgery in real time.

“It means delegates can see every step of the procedure, through the eyes of the surgeon, and see where decisions are made, and why they are made, and take part in discussions during whole procedure.

“The procedures we undertook in the live-stream we have performed many times with great success. But every surgeon has their own style and way of doing things. Sharing the precise way a procedure is undertaken in this way has many benefits as it exposes surgeons to the way others perform these procedures and encourages discussion and improvements in the field.”

Patient who volunteered is recovering well and glad to have supported medical education

Semi-retired businessman David McLoughlin, 62, from Braunston near Daventry, had his procedure on October 9 and was able to go home on October 12.

While the live-streamed operations were carried out anonymously Mr McLoughlin, who is married to Janice. and has two children and eight grandchildren, was happy to reveal his identity and describe his support for the surgical symposium.

He said: “About six weeks ago I went to my GP after stomach pains and some other tests and then I went to the hospital for a colonoscopy, which found I had cancer.

“My consultant, Mr Ahmed, explained about the live-stream and symposium and I was happy to volunteer to take part. I was impressed and reassured that Mr Ahmed was happy to do my operation watched by so many other consultants as it happened.

“I also thought if I can contribute to doctors learning in this ground-breaking way it has to be helpful to the 60 or more consultants attending to see the robotic technique being done live.”

Mr McLoughlin is now looking forward to a holiday in Australia in the New Year.

As his surgery took place experts in the field were present both in the hospital operating theatre and in Cripps Centre for the live-stream.

These included Prof Bill Heald OBE a ‘living legend’ in colorectal surgery who is known around the globe for his contribution to rectal surgery for last 50 years and is also Chairman of The European Academy of Robotic Colorectal Surgeon. Also Prof Amjad Parvaiz , who works both in Doha, Qatar, and Lisbon, Portugal, and is Professor of Surgery at Portsmouth University UK.

In total about 70 other surgeons and surgical registrars from across the country, including about 15 members of UHN, took part in the event.

Mr Ahmed, who is also a senior lecturer at the University Hospitals of Leicester, said: “Over the two days we live-streamed two different operations to remove cancers from the rectum.

“Both procedures went well for the patients and we received a lot of positive feedback from the symposium attendees on the benefits of the live-streaming method.

“We very much hope to build on the success of this kind of training to deliver the very best quality of teaching and medical education at UHN.”

UHN’s Group Medical Director, Mr Hemant Nemade, said: “I am extremely proud of Jamil and all of our colleagues who have been involved in the development of this innovative teaching method which enables doctors to literally shadow a surgeon very closely as they perform an operation.

“At UHN we have the ambition to be a leader in robotic surgery and this event helps us to demonstrate the progress we are making and enables us to share what we are learning along the way.”

Mr Ahmed added: “This educational event represented a significant achievement in establishing UHN as a leading centre for colorectal cancer and putting us on the map. This was made feasible through the outstanding collaboration of the theatre staff, anaesthetists, colorectal consultants, trainees, and the medical education team from NGH. I would also like to thank our chief executive for attending."