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
