Joseph Kurian by Tamer Seckin
Dr. Tamer Seckin
Hello everyone, this is Dr. Tamer Seckin. We are again in Sao Paulo, Brazil in joint ISGE and Brazilian Endometriosis Society Meeting. It has been a very exciting meeting going on with all aspects of endometriosis, but it all boils down to how the surgeons are trained. Training is a major concern particularly in the United States for endometriosis surgery. We will, however, get some expertise of Dr. Joseph Kurian from Madras, India. He has a School of Endoscopic Training in Madras, India. They apparently train significant number of candidates every year and he will tell us how they do it, how they could be part of ISGE training functions. Dr. Kurian.
Dr. Joseph Kurian
Hi, thanks Tamer. Well, we have been having the problem of training endoscopic surgeons in India. We have many doctors who want to learn, but they had no place to go and learn and then they would go to the west, learn, come back and be unable to practice in India because what we have in India is a little different from what you have in the United States. So what we started doing is to set up initially a basic course where candidates come in groups of six to eight and spend two weeks with us, practicing all the basic parts of endoscopic surgery. Once that is through, then they come back later after about three to six months depending on whenever they feel confident and then spend longer time with us to go into the more advanced versions of endoscopic surgery.
Dr. Tamer Seckin
How many cases do they do with you, basically they are part of your team that is training, right?
Dr. Joseph Kurian
That is right. They are part of our team. They assist us in all our surgeries, but in addition to that, they work on _________ trainers. We also have some small computer assisted models on which they work and we assess how they pickup by video graphing their work and then replaying it and seeing how they have changed between the time they started and finished their two-week course.
Dr. Tamer Seckin
How would doctors let us say even from US, as you know due to many reasons, major medicolegal hospitals in giving the residents the cases in the United States especially in advanced laparoscopy, very few residents do get other than holding the camera actually do the cases. So, it is not inconsiderable to send these residents or people who want to advance in these techniques to foreign countries where they can get more one to one hot training, do you accept we have people coming from outside of India especially United States and do you accept people, how does it go?
Dr. Joseph Kurian
Yeah, the first answer is yes, we accept people, but you have to fix the time in advance, because we need a free slot if you want to come and practice surgery for a longer period of time. When the regular training batch goes on, it is very difficult to fit in people who want to practice more advanced work. We already have people regularly coming from the UK. We have people coming from the Gulf countries. We have had people from Saudi Arabia and also from Sudan, who have come and spent very long periods with us. Our last candidate has been from Jordan. It is quite interesting teaching different people because each person is going back to a different setup and once they go back, it is quite thrilling to know how they have done and what progress they have made over a period of time.
Dr. Tamer Seckin
What is the minimal stay when they come to Madras for this teaching?
Dr. Joseph Kurian
I would think two weeks is fine. Because more than two weeks what happens is unless they are really committed, they begin to get a little homesick and then they start losing interest. So, what I suggest is after two weeks, they could comeback on another day and then spend a longer time, because by then they know what they have come for and how to pick it up.
Dr. Tamer Seckin
How many cases do they expect to do with you?
Dr. Joseph Kurian
We do on an average between two to four major cases a day. It is both me and Dr. Rekha Kurian who is also doing a lot of her own independent lists of endoscopy. With that, they would normally assist us in at least two of these cases everyday that is Monday to Friday. So it is a fair number they get and in addition, there is a video library where they could sit and see the earlier cases. All the cases we do are stored on hard disc, so they can pick it up, look back, see what happened and then revise their procedures.
Dr. Tamer Seckin
Joseph Kurian from Madras, India. Thank you.
Dr. Joseph Kurian
Thanks Tamer.
