Technology Committee

Mission statement

The Technology Committee was initially established 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 centers 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, telemedicine, novel approaches such as NOTES and new energized 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.

Chairman and advisor Technology Committee

Prof. Alberto Arezzo
Associate Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgical Sciences
University of Torino
Torino
Italy

Prof. Yoav Mintz
Advisor
Israel

Members

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

Thomas Carus
Germany

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)
London. University College London Hospital
London – UK
CV

Dr. Michele Diana MD PhD
Director of the Research Unit on Endo-Laparoscopic procedures, IHU-Strasbourg, Institute of Image-Guided Surgery
Senior Researcher at IRCAD, Research Institute against Cancer of the Digestive System
Strasbourg – France
CV

Ir. Fanny Ficuciello
Assistant Professor
Università di Napoli Federico II
Napoli – Italy
CV

Assist Prof. dr.lr. Tim Horeman MSc, Phd
Assistant professor in Sustainable Surgery
Delft University of Technology
Delft 
The Netherlands 
CV

Eng. Stefania Marconi PhD
Researcher at Dept. of Civil Engineering and Architecture
University of Pavia
Pavia
Italy
CV

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

Kiyokazu Nakajima
Japan

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

Chen Sagiv
Israel
CV

Prof. Marlies Schijven
Prof. of surgery, Upper GI surgeon
Chair on simulation, serious gaming and applied mobile health
AMC – Academic Medical Centre
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
CV

Pietro Valdastri
Italy

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.

FUSE will also be at the 27th EAES congress in Sevilla, Spain.

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 will be published in the Surgical Endoscopy journal.