Fifteen high school students from across Windsor and Essex County spent a Saturday morning at Windsor Regional Hospital in the Operating Room with the innovative multi-million dollar Da Vinci surgical robot.
The Robotics Surgery Day is a collaboration between WEtech Alliance, Windsor Regional Hospital, and Minogue Medical Inc. – the company that distributes the Da Vinci in Canada. Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation, which led the fundraising that helped bring the Da Vinci to Windsor-Essex, also supported the initiative.
“We want to inspire the next generation of surgeons, biomedical engineers and health tech entrepreneurs,” says Yvonne Pilon, President and CEO of WEtech Alliance. “How many people – including doctors – actually get to say they used the Da Vinci?”
There are approximately 22 DaVinci surgical robots in Canada – and this was the first time a group of Canadian high school students had an opportunity to use this rare piece of technology.
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj was on hand to share insights about the different paths that lead to careers in hospitals and healthcare.
“There are so many career paths that lead into healthcare, including doctors and nurses of course, but also engineers, computer programmers, business majors and communications to name just a few” says Musyj. “Hospitals are like the Olympics in terms of the variety of disciplines it brings together.”
Minogue Medical technical and clinical specialists led the demonstrations on the Da Vinci and also on an additional surgical skills simulator shipped for the event.
Two Second Year medical students from the Schulich School of Medicine – Michael Ferrato and Thien Dang – introduced students to a portable ultrasound device and offered themselves up as the test patients, while also sharing their journeys through school.
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