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>>Doctors Need 1,600 Robot-Aided Prostate Surgeries for Skills, Study Finds<<

Yeah I saw that, jbog. It has been pointed out previously that surgeons who have done >100 of some new type of surgery tend to claim that at least 100 is needed for proficiency. Surgeons who have done >200 say that 200 is needed for proficiency, and so on. Surgery is a competitive business and surgeons look for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition. Having more experience is one such way.

I wonder if thinking along these lines motivated this study.

That said, surgical learning curves do seem to go on almost forever - though they get flatter and flatter over time. Depending on the 3 surgeons you pick (that's all they followed in this study!) and where you draw a horizontal line defined as 'proficient', you can make the number of surgeries needed for proficiency as large as you like.

There have been many similar ('learning curve') da Vinci surgery studies over the past decade or so. I've seen learning curves that get fairly flat after 50 surgeries.

All I know is that I wouldn't want to be the patient of a surgeon doing his first of anything - not counting maybe a cadaver or a pig.

Interestingly, Intuitive recently started selling a da Vinci simulator - so that surgeons can practice da Vinci surgery as many times as they feel necessary before carrying it out for real. This might give a learning curve 'head start' to the next generation of surgeons.

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