American doctor learns Korean robotic surgery

Amid a growing controversy on robotic surgery’s effectiveness compared to its cost, an American doctor from a famous U.S. hospital is receiving attention for taking a training session on robotic surgery at a Korean hospital.

Yanghee Woo, 38, is going to be a surgeon at NYPH (New York-Presbyterian Hospital) of Columbia University from July 1. Woo and his parents immigrated to New Jersey when he was 7. He is a typical “Korean-American” who has lived in the U.S. for most of his life, since 1980.

Hyung Woon-jin, head of the Endoscopic Surgery Center at Yeonsei University Health System, trained Woo. “I was surprised that a U.S. doctor had applied for the training session in Korea”, said Dr. Hyung. “This indicates that Korean robotic surgery has been elevated from the U.S.’s viewpoint where robotic surgery originated.”

On June 28, Woo talked about his viewpoints on robotic surgery in an interview.

--Isn’t the U.S. where robotic surgery originated?

▲ Yes, it is. Robotic surgery was initiated in the U.S. since 1997 with the Zeus System. Da Vinci robotic surgery, the representative robotic surgery of today, has been widely used since 2003. A surgery with a da Vinci Robot began in 1998 and it was the U.S. that used the da Vinci robot firstly for heart bypass surgery in 1999. The University of Illinois used it for general surgical operations in 2000.

--Why did you choose Korea for the training session?

▲ I want to be an authority on stomach cancer surgery. There is no fellowship program in the U.S. like professor Hyung’s team here. Hyung is recognized as one of the best in the world for stomach surgery with endoscopes and robots. I am probably the first American doctor who has taken the robotic surgery training in Korea.

--What are the advantages for robotic surgery?

▲ There are three advantages of robotic surgery. First, the da Vinci system is certainly helpful with its various and advanced existing endoscopic surgical appliances. Second, if doctors take proper robotic surgery training, more accurate and detailed surgery will be possible. Third and last, it is most important that patients who underwent robotic surgery have consistently showed strengths of the surgery’s result and recovery time according to the statistics.

--How would you evaluate the robotic surgery skills of Yeonsei University Health System?

▲ I was a fellow of the part on gastroesophangeal endoscopy and internal secretion. So I only know about the robotic surgeries by professor Hyung Woo-jin and Dr. Jung Woong-yun. Watching their numerous robotic surgeries, I concluded that I would come back to Korea to get their robotic surgery if I got stomach cancer or thyroid cancer.

--It is controversial in Korea about the effectiveness of robotic surgery compared to its cost. How about in America?

▲ I know it is related with insurance that causes patients’ burdens of the cost to differ between existing laparotomy and the robotic surgery. The cost of the surgery is a problem in the U.S. as well, but it is considered as a matter of the national health care system rather than individuals’ cost burdens.

I am not an expert on medical policy. However, I think the advantages of robotic surgery shouldn’t be abandoned just because the equipment is expensive. We should either bring down the cost of the robotic surgery itself, or mend the insurance system so that more people can be favored with robotic surgery.