European Association for Endoscopic Surgery and other Interventional Techniques

Technology Committee

Chair 

Prof. Yoav Mintz
Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center
Department of Surgery
Jerusalem – Israel
CV

Mission statement

The Technology Committee was initially established in 1995 by Gerhard Buess and Andreas Melzer to study tools, techniques and technologies to aid European minimal access surgeons. Through the years, EAES has acquired a leading role in European Surgery, as minimal access and minimally invasive treatments have become widely diffused and represent the gold standard in most surgical fields. Thus, the technology committee has taken the responsibility to support innovation and to lead the introduction of novel basic and advanced instruments in terms of validation, instruction for a better daily use and patient safety.

As EAES has become a reference point for a multitude of surgeons and other specialists from different environments, from research centres to private practice, a balanced attitude is needed between cutting-edge innovation and daily clinical use. This responsible approach is fully represented in the committee’s activities and mirrored by the yearly activity that includes both breakthrough presentations and survey activities, as well as by the effort to deliver to the audience of our symposium a comprehensive overview of available devices on the market, evolving technology and future new devices. The committee interacts and cooperates with other committees and societies in fields of mutual interest. A clear example is simulation for the training of surgeons in minimal access interventions, where, as in the domain of the Educational Committee, full integration of methodologies and technologies are required. The Operating Room of the future, digital technologies, mixed reality, telemedicine, novel approaches such as robotics, NOTES and new energised instruments represent the daily interest of the technology committee’s members, opinion leaders and active researchers in these fields, committed to improve the future of our patients.”

Finally, a challenging but crucial part of our mission is to spread technology and minimally invasive surgery in developing and low budget countries and hospitals. We strongly believe that technology and innovations are not a luxury reserved for the privileged only.

MEMBERS

Dr. Ludovica Baldari (young member)
MD, Resident Physician in General Surgery
University of Milan
Milan – Italy
CV

Noriyuki Inaki
Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Gastrointestinal Surgery
Kanazawa, Japan
CV

Rosa Jimenez-Rodrigues
Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio
General Surgery
Sevilla, Spain
CV

Prof. Young Woo Kim
National Cancer Center
Center for Gastric Cancer
Goyang
South Korea
CV

Luigi Manfredi
University of Dundee
Institute for Medical Science and Technology (IMSaT)
Division of Medical Science and Technology
Dundee, UK
CV

Prof. Piotr Myśliwiec
bariatric & endocrine surgeon
1st Department of General and Endocrine Surgery
Medical University of Bialystok
Poland
CV

Dr. Francisco Sánchez-Margallo (Spain)
Scientific Director at JUMISC in Cáceres
Director of the Centre affiliated to University of Extremadura
CV

Kiyokazu Nakajima, MD, FACS
Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan
Department of Next Generation Endoscopic Intervention
Osaka, Japan


In addition to the general activities, the technology committee also has 4 subcommittees.
Each subcommittees consist of a chair, some committee members and external consultants.

 

FLEXIBLE ENDOSCOPY SUBCOMMITTEE

Chair
Prof. Silvana Perretta
NHC University Hospital Strasbourg
Digestive and Endocrine Surgery
Strassbourg – France
Biography

Member
Dr. Gad Marom
Hadassah Ein Kerem
General Surgery
Jerusalem – Israel
Biography

Member
Dr George Mylonas
Lecturer in Robotics and Technology in Cancer, Leader, Human-centred Automation Robotics and Monitoring in Surg (HARMS) Lab
Imperial College
London, UK
Biography

Consultant
Dr. Rastislav Kunda
Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel
Hepatopancreatobiliary and Gastrointestinal Surgery and Digestive Endoscopy
Brussels – Belgium

Consultant
Dr. Ludovica Guerriero
Monaldi Hospital
General Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery
Naples – Italy
Biography

Consultant
Dr. María Rita Rodriguez Luna
Institute Research against Digestive Cancer
Strasbourg – France
Biography

ROBOTICS SUBCOMMITTEE

Chair
Prof. Hans Fuchs
Professor of surgery
Leading surgeon, robotic surgery
Department of Surgery, University of Cologne
Cologne – Germany
CV

Member
Assist Prof. dr.lr. Tim Horeman MSc, Phd

Assistant professor in Sustainable Surgery
Delft University of Technology
Delft – The Netherlands 
CV

Member
Dr. Wanda Petz
Surgeon, division of Digestive Surgery
IEO (Euroepan Institute of Oncology)
Milano – Italy
CV

Consultant
Dr. Benjamin Babic
St. Elisabethenkrankenhaus Frankfurt
Center for esophageal and gastric cancer surgery
Frankfurt am Main – Germany
Biography

Consultant
Dr.med Dolores Müller
University of Cologne
Department of General, Visceral, Cancer and Transplant Surgery
Cologne – Germany
Biography

Consultant
Dr. Nariaki Okamoto
IRCAD
Digestive Surgery
Strasbourg – France
Biography

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUBCOMMITTEE

Chair
PD 
Dr.med. Felix Nickel MME
Surgeon, Department of General, Visceral, and Transplant Surgery
Heidelberg University
Heidelberg – Germany
CV 

Member
Dr. Pietro Mascagni
MD, PhD candidate in Surgical Data Science,
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
IHU-Strasbourg, University of Strasbourg, France
CV

Member
Chen Sagiv
Co CEO SagivTech Ltd
Raanana, Israel
CV

Consultant
Dr. Roi Anteby
The Chaim Sheba Medical Center
Department of Surgery
Tel Ha-Shomer, Ramat Gan – Israel
CV

Consultant
Dr. Pieter De Backer Ir.
Orsi Academy
Robotic Surgery
Erembodegem (Aalst) – Belgium
CV

Consultant
Dr.med. Martin Wagner
Heidelberg University Hospital
General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery
Heidelberg – Germany
CV

IMAGE GUIDED SURGERY SUBCOMMITTEE

Chair
Prof. Luigi Boni
Prof of Surgery, University of Milan – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Chief of Surgery, Fondazione IRCCS – Ca’ Granda
Milan – Italy
CV

Member
Dr.
Manish Chand MBBS BSc FRCS FASCRS MBA PhD
Associate Professor of Surgery and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon
Welcome EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS)
University College London Hospital – London – UK
CV

Member
Dr. Michele Diana
IRCAD Institute
Strasbourg – France
CV

Member
Juan Alberto Sánchez-Margallo
Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre
Bioengineering and Health Technologies Unit
Cáceres, Spain
CV

Consultant
Dr. Mahdi Al-Taher MD, PhD, FEBS-MIS
Image-Guided Surgery Fellow bij IRCAD
Gastrointestinal surgeon Maastricht UMC+
Maastricht – The Netherlands
CV

Consultant
Dr. Deborak Keller FACS FASCRS
University of California at Davis
Department of Surgery
Sacramento – USA
CV

Consultant
Ph.Dr. Silvia Quaresima
Sapienza University of Rome
Department of General Surgery and
Surgical Specialties Paride Stefanini
Rome – Italy
CV

Technology committee paper

The committee has published a paper in the Annals of Surgery titled: A Low-cost, Safe, and Effective Method for Smoke Evacuation in Laparoscopic Surgery for Suspected Coronavirus Patients which can be viewed here: 2020 EAES A_Low_cost_Safe_and_Effective_Method_for_Smoke.5

OR.net

The committee is involved in the OR.net taskforce for integration and communication infrastructure for operating rooms.

  • Connect heterogeneous data sources and integrate information, OR IoT-platform
  • Reference project ORNET with 90 partners (industry, hospital operators, academia)
  • Result: Medical device interoperability and data integration, added value e.g. OR data spider, documentation, workflow management

For more information, please visit: http://ornet.org/en/.

Fluorescence registry

The EURO-FIGS registry is promoted by the EAES and the IHU Strasbourg Institute of Image Guided Surgery. The primary aim of the EURO-FIGS registry is to enable an easy and centralised collection of safety and efficacy data of Fluorescence Guidance in various surgical applications. Data is collected from surgical centres across Europe.

For more information on the registry please go to:  http://www.euro-figs.eu/login/

FUSE project

The committee has committed itself to the SAGES FUSE programme. The Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy™ (FUSE) program was developed to meet the need for increased education and training in the principles and properties of operating electrosurgical instruments safely. SAGES encourages learning and applying these fundamental skills in order to ensure a minimal standard of care for all patients undergoing surgery. For more information visit the website https://www.fuseprogram.org/about/fuse-elsewhere/ or check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDFrBwXRQkY.

3D consensus conference 2018

After a Health technology Assessment on 3D vision technology was completed last year, the aim of the 3D consensus conference was to generate a guideline on the same topic based on best available evidence and expert opinions of EAES Technology committee members. After a systematic review of the literature by an international group of research fellows, an expert panel with extensive engineering and clinical experience in the use of 3Dvision technology discussed statements and recommendations. Twenty-two statements and 2 recommendations were obtained unanimously by the experts and were discussed and voted on at the consensus conference during the EAES congress in May 2018 in London by the attendees of the meeting.

The most important regarding general topics are:

  1. 3D vision improves outcomes for junior trainees in performing standardised tasks in box trainers, only when 3D systems with HD screen and passive polarised glasses are used and only when properly set up
  2. The use of 3D imaging systems improves laparoscopic box trainer completion time and error rate but this benefit has not been studied n clinical practice.

The most important regarding clinical settings are:

  1. 3D laparoscopy shortens the operating time in all the analysed surgical settings (general surgery, urology and gynaecology)
  2. The pooling of data from the different settings seems to suggest a lowering in the overall rate of complications after surgical procedures involving suturing in 3D laparoscopy, especially in the gynaecology setting; indeed data are too heterogeneous and weak to sustain any recommendation, other than implications for future research

These statements produced 2 recommendations:

  1. 3D laparoscopy might shorten operative times
  2. Future research is recommended to demonstrate that 3D vision may lower the complication rate in laparoscopy

The majority of the EAES members supported these statements. The consensus proceedings provide additional guidance to surgeons and surgical residents providing help when using 3D vision technology.

The 3D consensus conference outcomes have been published in the Surgical Endoscopy journal.

Upcoming Events

The EAES 2022 Wintermeeting - on demand available now

The recorded lectures of the 2022 edition of the EAES Wintermeeting. Offered to you by the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery. A morning full of lectures about the latest technology in endoscopic surgery. ‘Innovations in surgery – from lab to OR’.