Utilization and Surgical Skill Transferability of the Simulator Robot to the Clinical Robot for Urology Surgery

Virtual reality is an increasingly popular surgical training tool in Australia, following the introduction of Australia's first virtual reality simulation machine at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney. This literature review aims at identifying gaps in previous studies, and in providing a comprehensive review of future studies to be further developed in Australia.

A multi-field research was performed combining the key terms 'uro*' and 'virtua*' and 'simula*' and 'robo*'. Academic search engines used in this literature review included 'Medline', 'Scopus', and 'Sciencedirect'. Studies with laparoscopic skills as a focused investigation but not robotic skills were excluded. Critical appraisal of each of the article was conducted with a discussion of key topic involving urologists with expert skills on robotic surgery.

A thorough literature review discovered 3 main types of studies in this area. These are: (1) validity studies; (2) studies specific for urology procedures; (3) studies on skill transfer, in general. Cohort study and randomized control trial are the 2 dominant forms of research designs.

Future studies need to focus more around the investigation of operation-specific training, in conjunction with skills-based teaching. Also, it is important that these studies incorporate teamwork, decision-making, and communication skills.