Robotic Surgery Education By the Numbers
2016 |
6th |
2018 |
>200 |
PGY1–5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curriculum established | Current edition | Graduates certified since | Console cases at graduation* | Longitudinal training |
*Use >200 if supported by the most current internal case-log data. The published 2026 cohort averaged 195 console cases.
Training the Next Generation of Robotic Surgeons
The Phoenix Integrated Surgical Residency is a national leader in robotic surgery education. We established our formal robotic surgery curriculum in 2016, when structured robotic training within general surgery residency was still in its infancy. Over the past decade, the curriculum has evolved through six editions to keep pace with advances in surgical technology and, more importantly, with advances in how we teach surgery.
Our goal is not simply to expose residents to robotic surgery or help them complete a certification pathway. Our goal is procedural proficiency.
Robotic technology provides a powerful platform for teaching surgery. Dual consoles facilitate real-time instruction and graduated autonomy. Integrated video allows residents and faculty to review operative performance. Simulation provides opportunities for deliberate practice outside the operating room. Together, these tools allow us to individualize training while teaching the fundamental principles of surgery: exposure, tissue handling, dissection, operative judgment, efficiency and safe progression through an operation.
A Longitudinal, Competency-Based Curriculum
Robotic education begins during intern orientation and progresses throughout all five years of residency. Residents advance based on experience, demonstrated proficiency and increasing operative responsibility.
- Early exposure beginning in PGY1, including platform education, bedside training, docking, port placement, troubleshooting and simulation.
- Progressive console experience, beginning with components of straightforward operations and advancing to increasingly complex procedures.
- 24-hour access to robotic simulation, allowing residents to practice technical skills and complete individualized simulation modules.
- Hands-on dry and tissue laboratories throughout residency, with increasingly advanced procedural training.
- Dual-console operative teaching, allowing faculty to provide real-time instruction and seamlessly transfer operative responsibility as residents progress.
- Structured operative video review to support case preparation, self-assessment, faculty feedback and technical refinement.
- PGY-specific goals and competency benchmarks that emphasize graduated autonomy rather than case numbers alone.
- Advanced operative experience across a broad spectrum of general surgery, including foregut, hernia, colorectal, bariatric, hepatobiliary and acute care surgery.
By the senior years, residents are expected to integrate technical skill, operative planning and surgical judgment to perform increasingly complex robotic operations with progressive autonomy.
Beyond Certification: Training for Practice
Our residents have graduated with robotic surgery certification since 2018. Certification, however, represents a milestone - not the endpoint of training.
The curriculum is designed to prepare residents to use robotic technology safely and effectively in independent surgical practice or fellowship. Graduating residents now complete more than 200 robotic cases as primary console surgeon, providing an operative experience that extends well beyond the minimum requirements for certification.
Our philosophy reflects the broader mission of the Phoenix Integrated Surgical Residency: we train surgeons, not technicians. Robotic technology is another tool through which residents learn anatomy, operative strategy, tissue handling, decision-making and the progressive independence required to become confident and technically proficient general surgeons.
Innovation Through Surgical Education
The curriculum is continually reassessed and updated as surgical technology and educational science evolve. Its sixth edition incorporates competency-based progression, individualized simulation, structured video review and contemporary robotic technology.
Our experience has also contributed to the national conversation about how robotic surgery should be taught. Program Director Jennifer Preston, MD, FACS, is a national leader in robotic surgical education and regularly works with surgical educators and residency program directors on developing and implementing robotic curricula.
In 2026, our faculty and residents published the program’s curriculum in the Journal of Surgical Education: “A Competency-Based Robotic Surgery Curriculum for General Surgery Training Programs.” The publication provides a framework that other general surgery residency programs can adapt to their own learners and resources.
For our residents, innovation in robotic surgery is not separate from surgical education. It is part of how we are redefining surgical education for the next generation.
Supporting Publication
Dickerson K, Vedula S, Kenny L, Thomsen J, Landin M, Preston J. A Competency-Based Robotic Surgery Curriculum for General Surgery Training Programs. Journal of Surgical Education. 2026;83:104166. doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2026.104166.