Community Memorial Healthcare recently reached a major milestone in robotic surgery by completing its 5000th da Vinci procedure. Robotic surgery is often referred to as “robotic-assisted surgery,” and that’s for good reason. Without a skilled surgeon at the helm, a robotic surgical platform is just a sophisticated tool. The surgeon’s technique and expertise using the robot makes all the difference. With the da Vinci system, surgeons work inside a highly sophisticated, immersive console, remotely manipulating tiny instruments that have been inserted into the surgical area.
Robotic assisted surgery allows for incredible precision, resulting in faster recoveries, shorter hospital stays and enhanced results for patients. In this episode, we sit down with one of Community Memorial Health System’s pioneers in robotic surgery, Dr. Marc Beaghler, to discuss a brief history of robotics at Community Memorial Health System and the benefits of the da Vinci robotic surgery platform.
Selected Podcast
Da Vinci Robotic Systems & History of Robotics at CMHS
Featured Speaker:
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology
Dr. Marc Beaghler received his Medical Degree from the Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE, and completed an urology residency at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA. Dr. Beaghler is a former Associate Professor of Surgery at Loma Linda University, Medical Center and is currently a clinical professor of Urology at USC Keck School of Medicine as well as the Medical Director of Robotic Surgery at Community Memorial Health System. He is a member of the American Urology Association, Fellow of the American College of Surgery and a member of The Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. He is a Reviewer for Urology a peer reviewed journal. Dr. Beaghler has a special interest in minimally-invasive surgery and laparoscopic surgery. Transcription:
Da Vinci Robotic Systems & History of Robotics at CMHS
Caitln Whyte: Robotic assisted surgery allows for incredible precision resulting in faster recoveries, shorter hospital stays, and enhanced results for patients. In this episode, we sit down with one of community Memorial Healthcare pioneers in robotic surgery, urologist, Dr. Marc Beaghler, to discuss a brief history of robotics at Community Memorial Healthcare and the benefits of the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery platform. This is Wise and Well presented by Community Memorial Healthcare. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Doctor, start us off here. Tell us about your background and education.
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: I'm a urologist. I was trained at a university program at Lo Melinda University, specialized in minimally invasive surgery. And after I completed my training, I stayed on as a associate professor at Lo Melinda in the Department of Urology for four years. I moved to Ventura in 2021, and I've been in practice both in private practice and practice with a hospital since that time.
Caitln Whyte: And how long have you been a da Vinci trained surgeon?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: I've founded the program here along with Dr. Avazi, Dr. Rare, myself, in 2004, and we started doing our first cases of in volume in 2005.
Caitln Whyte: Great. Tell us how did the introduction of robotic surgery change the trajectory of your career as a surgeon?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: That's an interesting question. I don't know that it necessarily changed the trajectory of my career, but it certainly changed how we practiced urology for the last 15 or so years in terms of how we treated prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma and urologic cancers in general. So I would say that it sort of basically revolutionized how surgery was done for kidney cancer and in this practice for us with treatment of prostate cancer.
Caitln Whyte: And when did Community Memorial Healthcare first introduce robotic surgery?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: 2004 is when we got the first robot. I think we did the first case at the end of 2004, but really in earnest, the program started in full in 2005.
Caitln Whyte: So tell us a bit about that journey of implementing the first surgical robot. What was that like?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: It was very difficult in the beginning because it is so re revolutionary in terms of how we did surgery in, at that time we got the first generation robot, all of us Dr. Avazi, myself, Dr. Rare, we all went to learn and we took special courses and. And then we started doing cases and we did the first cases we did with Proctors who came from Outsider Institution to help us establish and set up our program. And train us the techniques. That took about a year to really get to the end of that.
And then after that, we just started doing cases with our partners. And then eventually it's developed to the point where now most of the cases are done with either a. First assistant who's a surgical resident, or oftentimes we use surgical nurses that help us in the operating room perform those procedures. And for the most part, they're done primary surgeon and a second assist who's a, usually a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant.
Caitln Whyte: And how has robotic surgery progressed at Community Memorial Healthcare since then?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: Well, the program has grown extensively from the very beginning. In the beginning, there were only a few of us obviously doing cases, primarily the urologist and general surgeons. Now it's expanded into a large number of cases being done by the gynecologic surgeons, both for benign disease and also for malignant disease. The gynoncologist are doing a large number of robotic cases. General surgery is doing a large number of cases. Obviously urology is doing a large number of cases. Now the thoracic surgeons are doing a lot of lung surgery in other cases.
So it's grown into all those areas. And since the inception of the program in 2005, we now have two robots and a teaching monitor where the assistants can learn how to operate the robot along with the attending surgeons. So the program has grown tremendously. The volume of cases has gone up tremendously. We've exceeded a total of 5,000 cases in our program since inception. So every year there's been increase in the number of surgeons that are doing robotic surgery along with increases in subspecialty areas that are doing robotic cases.
And also basically just increases in all areas in terms of number of cases that are done. So the program has grown consistently year after year since the beginning. And we're at the point now where we probably need to have another, a dedicated. To bring us up to three robots and probably another teaching monitor as well.
Caitln Whyte: Let's dive into those different areas. What types of procedures are available using the Da Vinci surgical platform?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: We'll start with urology. In urology, we do robotic radical prostat ectomies for prostate cancer. Dr. Pune does simple robotic prostat ectomies. We also do partial nephrectomies, which means that we can remove part of the tumor or we can remove the tumor and leave the kidney in place. That's called the partial nephrectomy. And also we can do radical nephrectomy, which means to remove the entire kidney and the surrounding tissue. In certain cases, in addition, there's complex reconstructive procedures that can be done urological. So that's urology.
General surgery, they use it for. Hernia repairs. They use it for bowel resections. They use it for basically all the different general surgical procedures and that has grown, exponentially over the last, I'd say five years. In gynecology, they use it for removal of benign pelvic lesions like fibroid tumors. And in gynecologic oncology, they use it to remove pelvic gynecologic neoplasms. So they use it extensively. In thoracic surgery, they use it for lung resections and for bips. There's even discussion about in other areas they use robotic surgery for cardiac surgery as well.
So in all those areas it 's grown and so it's a moving target. So not sure what's gonna be next, but that's of where things are. That's state of the art at our hospital current.
Caitln Whyte: Wonderful. So how does robotic assisted surgery provide a better experience for the patient than traditional laparoscopic surgery?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: If you look at laparoscopic surgery, to do some of these procedures, like for example, a laparoscopic prostatectomy, it's technically if you're doing a pure laparoscopic procedure, it's very difficult and only a few people really have the skills to do it laparoscopically. To do that complex of an operation. So it provided the ability to do suturing and do all the type of surgery that we would do normally in an open situation, but to do it laparoscopically. In terms of urologic applications, a lot of the cases that we do are extremely difficult anyways, but they would be almost impossible, or very difficult to do laparoscopically.
But the real difference is it's really not much difference in terms of patient recovery and all those issues. It's really the ability to provide more tools for the surgeon. So in terms of the patient. Net is that most patients with some of these complex procedures like a radical robotic prostatectomy, for example, they often go home the same day as the procedure is done, which is revolutionary compared to the way surgery was done previously. So minimally invasive, not a lot of big incisions. Patients are able to go home sooner. They're able to get back to work sooner, and then they ultimately have the same outcome or better outcome doing it robotically.
Caitln Whyte: That does sound like a much better experience. Doctor, how do I know if I'm a candidate for a robotic assisted procedure?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: You don't, that really depends on what your problem is and who right? Ideal candidates are patients that haven't had a lot of previous surgery, for example, and then they have disease which is treated robotically. So it just depends on the clinical situation. But you wouldn't necessarily know right off the bat. But it just depends on the clinical situation.
Caitln Whyte: Great. Dr. Beaghler, thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us today. You can always find more podcasts and resources at mycmh.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Wise and well presented by Community Memorial Health System. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Be well.
Da Vinci Robotic Systems & History of Robotics at CMHS
Caitln Whyte: Robotic assisted surgery allows for incredible precision resulting in faster recoveries, shorter hospital stays, and enhanced results for patients. In this episode, we sit down with one of community Memorial Healthcare pioneers in robotic surgery, urologist, Dr. Marc Beaghler, to discuss a brief history of robotics at Community Memorial Healthcare and the benefits of the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery platform. This is Wise and Well presented by Community Memorial Healthcare. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Doctor, start us off here. Tell us about your background and education.
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: I'm a urologist. I was trained at a university program at Lo Melinda University, specialized in minimally invasive surgery. And after I completed my training, I stayed on as a associate professor at Lo Melinda in the Department of Urology for four years. I moved to Ventura in 2021, and I've been in practice both in private practice and practice with a hospital since that time.
Caitln Whyte: And how long have you been a da Vinci trained surgeon?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: I've founded the program here along with Dr. Avazi, Dr. Rare, myself, in 2004, and we started doing our first cases of in volume in 2005.
Caitln Whyte: Great. Tell us how did the introduction of robotic surgery change the trajectory of your career as a surgeon?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: That's an interesting question. I don't know that it necessarily changed the trajectory of my career, but it certainly changed how we practiced urology for the last 15 or so years in terms of how we treated prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma and urologic cancers in general. So I would say that it sort of basically revolutionized how surgery was done for kidney cancer and in this practice for us with treatment of prostate cancer.
Caitln Whyte: And when did Community Memorial Healthcare first introduce robotic surgery?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: 2004 is when we got the first robot. I think we did the first case at the end of 2004, but really in earnest, the program started in full in 2005.
Caitln Whyte: So tell us a bit about that journey of implementing the first surgical robot. What was that like?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: It was very difficult in the beginning because it is so re revolutionary in terms of how we did surgery in, at that time we got the first generation robot, all of us Dr. Avazi, myself, Dr. Rare, we all went to learn and we took special courses and. And then we started doing cases and we did the first cases we did with Proctors who came from Outsider Institution to help us establish and set up our program. And train us the techniques. That took about a year to really get to the end of that.
And then after that, we just started doing cases with our partners. And then eventually it's developed to the point where now most of the cases are done with either a. First assistant who's a surgical resident, or oftentimes we use surgical nurses that help us in the operating room perform those procedures. And for the most part, they're done primary surgeon and a second assist who's a, usually a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant.
Caitln Whyte: And how has robotic surgery progressed at Community Memorial Healthcare since then?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: Well, the program has grown extensively from the very beginning. In the beginning, there were only a few of us obviously doing cases, primarily the urologist and general surgeons. Now it's expanded into a large number of cases being done by the gynecologic surgeons, both for benign disease and also for malignant disease. The gynoncologist are doing a large number of robotic cases. General surgery is doing a large number of cases. Obviously urology is doing a large number of cases. Now the thoracic surgeons are doing a lot of lung surgery in other cases.
So it's grown into all those areas. And since the inception of the program in 2005, we now have two robots and a teaching monitor where the assistants can learn how to operate the robot along with the attending surgeons. So the program has grown tremendously. The volume of cases has gone up tremendously. We've exceeded a total of 5,000 cases in our program since inception. So every year there's been increase in the number of surgeons that are doing robotic surgery along with increases in subspecialty areas that are doing robotic cases.
And also basically just increases in all areas in terms of number of cases that are done. So the program has grown consistently year after year since the beginning. And we're at the point now where we probably need to have another, a dedicated. To bring us up to three robots and probably another teaching monitor as well.
Caitln Whyte: Let's dive into those different areas. What types of procedures are available using the Da Vinci surgical platform?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: We'll start with urology. In urology, we do robotic radical prostat ectomies for prostate cancer. Dr. Pune does simple robotic prostat ectomies. We also do partial nephrectomies, which means that we can remove part of the tumor or we can remove the tumor and leave the kidney in place. That's called the partial nephrectomy. And also we can do radical nephrectomy, which means to remove the entire kidney and the surrounding tissue. In certain cases, in addition, there's complex reconstructive procedures that can be done urological. So that's urology.
General surgery, they use it for. Hernia repairs. They use it for bowel resections. They use it for basically all the different general surgical procedures and that has grown, exponentially over the last, I'd say five years. In gynecology, they use it for removal of benign pelvic lesions like fibroid tumors. And in gynecologic oncology, they use it to remove pelvic gynecologic neoplasms. So they use it extensively. In thoracic surgery, they use it for lung resections and for bips. There's even discussion about in other areas they use robotic surgery for cardiac surgery as well.
So in all those areas it 's grown and so it's a moving target. So not sure what's gonna be next, but that's of where things are. That's state of the art at our hospital current.
Caitln Whyte: Wonderful. So how does robotic assisted surgery provide a better experience for the patient than traditional laparoscopic surgery?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: If you look at laparoscopic surgery, to do some of these procedures, like for example, a laparoscopic prostatectomy, it's technically if you're doing a pure laparoscopic procedure, it's very difficult and only a few people really have the skills to do it laparoscopically. To do that complex of an operation. So it provided the ability to do suturing and do all the type of surgery that we would do normally in an open situation, but to do it laparoscopically. In terms of urologic applications, a lot of the cases that we do are extremely difficult anyways, but they would be almost impossible, or very difficult to do laparoscopically.
But the real difference is it's really not much difference in terms of patient recovery and all those issues. It's really the ability to provide more tools for the surgeon. So in terms of the patient. Net is that most patients with some of these complex procedures like a radical robotic prostatectomy, for example, they often go home the same day as the procedure is done, which is revolutionary compared to the way surgery was done previously. So minimally invasive, not a lot of big incisions. Patients are able to go home sooner. They're able to get back to work sooner, and then they ultimately have the same outcome or better outcome doing it robotically.
Caitln Whyte: That does sound like a much better experience. Doctor, how do I know if I'm a candidate for a robotic assisted procedure?
Marc Beaghler, MD, Urology: You don't, that really depends on what your problem is and who right? Ideal candidates are patients that haven't had a lot of previous surgery, for example, and then they have disease which is treated robotically. So it just depends on the clinical situation. But you wouldn't necessarily know right off the bat. But it just depends on the clinical situation.
Caitln Whyte: Great. Dr. Beaghler, thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us today. You can always find more podcasts and resources at mycmh.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Wise and well presented by Community Memorial Health System. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Be well.