September 18, 2008
Chicago, Illinois, USA
SLS' 2008 Excel Award recipient was presented to Harrith M. Hasson, MD, who lectured on "Evaluating Surgical Performance."
“I knew Harrith before I knew Harrith,” said Dr. Charles Koh
in his introduction of Dr. Harrith Hasson, the 2008 Excel Award recipient. “He
is humble but has an ever-searching brain.”
Attending the award ceremony, to Dr. Hasson’s surprise and
delight, were “Harry’s Angels,” a group of devoted employees who worked by his
side for many years while he was in Chicago.
Dr. Hasson has many firsts. He was the first to perform the open
laparoscopy technique, which was named after him, the Hasson Technique, along
with the instruments to be used during the procedure. His experience using this
new technique was published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine in 1974. He was the first to design a simulator for
training surgeons, he has 52 patents for medical devices, and he has numerous
publications and awards to his credit. RealSim Systems, founded by Hasson in
2004, develops laparoscopic simulators, which are considered better than
virtual training simulators.
“To perform laparoscopic surgery,” said
Hasson, “certain abilities are required. These include the ability to operate
on a 3-D object from a 2-D image and the ability to develop psychomotor
hand-eye coordination.” His current goal is to bring about a paradigm shift in the
assessment and training of surgeons. He hopes the current system of using subjective
measures to assess skills will be replaced by the use of objective measures for
this purpose. With the use of simulators, skills can be objectively tested. “Some
things are not teachable,” said Dr. Hasson. Each person is born with a certain
skill level. Some have greater skill than others. Through the use of
simulators, each person can practice until his or her particular skill is
developed to its highest level.
by Ann Conti Morcos, MA, ELS
www.Laparoscopy.org The Laparoscopic Surgery Information Source
