(Oneida, New Hartford, NY – Jan. 2014) New Harford High School and Oneida Healthcare are partnering to provide students and residents of the community with a unique opportunity to “test drive” a robotic surgery system.
On Jan. 15 Intuitive Surgical will be on-site at the school with a complete da Vinci robotic surgical system, identical to the one used by surgeons at Oneida Healthcare. “This traveling system is in demand all over the country so we’re very fortunate that it became available. We’re really excited to work with New Hartford High School in presenting this special school/community opportunity,” said Mike Healy, Oneida Healthcare spokesman.
The all-day event was arranged in conjunction with the school’s “Project Lead the Way” technology program. During school hours, students will get a chance to actually sit at the surgeon’s console and perform “surgery” on tiny inanimate objects, with Intuitive representatives on hand to answer questions.
The evening session will be open to the community from 5 to 8 p.m. with similar hands-on opportunities for the public and Oneida Healthcare surgeons: Drs. Alberto Del Pino, Peter Del Pino, Firooz Ravangard and Shane Sopp, will be on hand for demonstrations and to answer questions about the state-of-the-art minimally invasive robotic technology.
Oneida Healthcare is the only robotic surgery center in Oneida, Herkimer and Madison counties and has performed more single-site robotic gall balder removals than any other robotic program is Central New York.