Florida Hospital Preparing For The Future of Medicine
Dear Friends & Neighbors,

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For those of you living in Central Florida with interest in health and robotics, you may be interested in this particular event, “Medical Devices: The Equipment of Innovation“, at Florida Hospital Nicholson Center, 404 Celebration Pl, Celebration, FL 34747, on June 13, 2017, between 12:00-2:00 pm. To join the waitlist, please visit HERE.
The event agenda, below:
12:00-Networking & Lunch
12:30-Speaker Introductions
1:00-Moderated Forum
1:30-Audience Q & A
2:00-Tours of the Nicholson Center Simulation & Robotics labs, including live demo
3:00-Event Closed
The speakers & moderator at this event are:
- Roger Smith, Ph.D. (moderator),
Chief Technology Officer for the Florida Hospital Nicholson Center where he is responsible for establishing the technology strategy and leading research experiments in robotic surgery, telesurgery, simulation-based education, and financial ROI models. He has served as the CTO for the U.S. Army PEO for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO-STRI); VP and CTO for training systems at Titan Corp; and Vice President of Technology at BTG Inc. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, a Doctorate in Management, and an M.S. in Statistics. He has published 3 professional textbooks on simulation, 10 book chapters, and over 100 journal and conference papers. His most recent book is A CTO Thinks About Innovation. He has served on the editorial boards of the Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation and the Research Technology Management journals.
- Vanaja V. Ragavan, MD (speaker)
Dr. Ragavan is a board certified endocrinologist, and President and CEO of Aviana Molecular Technologies. Educated at Harvard College (AB) and NYU School of Medicine (MD), her career has spanned positions at FDA, global pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies, as an Angel Investor, Entrepreneur and Consultant. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Ragavan has been a founder of two companies, one of which has exited. She has been involved in all aspects of company startup, including licensing, technology transfer, business strategy, due diligence and fundraising. Dr. Ragavan founded Aviana Molecular Technologies in 2009 in to develop a biosensor technology platform for a Point of Care Diagnostic for human health and veterinary applications. For the past 6 years, Dr. Ragavan has been actively involved in startup drug, device and diagnostic companies as an investor, as a part of the management team or as a consultant. Prior to this work in the startup area, Dr. Ragavan is a board certified endocrinologist who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over eighteen years.
- Jack G. Abid,
Jack Abid is a Shareholder and Registered Patent Attorney for ADD&G, one of Florida’s oldest and largest law firms practicing intellectual property law. Mr. Abid practices in the area of patent prosecution. His patent prosecution experience includes electrical and electronic equipment, telecommunications equipment and cables, laser and optical devices, semiconductor devices, semiconductor processing, and mechanical devices. While attending the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Mr. Abid served as Editor-in-Chief, Research Editor, and Web Editor of the Florida Journal of International Law. He was also a member of the Journal of Technology Law and Policy and was elected as a class representative of the John Marshall Bar Association for two years. During his service as a class representative, Mr. Abid received the President’s Award for outstanding service.
- Errol Singh, MD,
Dr. Errol Singh is the Founder and CEO of PercuVision® LLC, a better way to place urinary catheters rather than the standard of blind insertions. After several patents were accepted, Dr. Singh launched the DirectVision System in 2010, a camera guided Foley catheter that has revolutionized patient care by significantly reducing pain and complications from difficult catheterizations.
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Florida Hospital Nicholson Center is a medical research and training center with locations in Celebration and Orlando, Florida. Founded in 2001, it operates within the Florida Hospital network and trains physicians on foundational surgical techniques, including robotic surgery and laparoscopic surgery, using tools like robotic simulators, wet and dry labs. Using emerging robotic, laparoscopic and orthopedic surgical techniques, the Nicholson Center is researching to develop modified ways to operate.
In 2001, the center was founded as the Surgical Learning Institute. After receiving a grant in 2008 from Orlando real estate developers, Anthony and Sonja Nicholson, the center became the Florida Hospital Nicholson Center and opened new facility in 2011. The expansion included lecture and education rooms wired for digital conferences, two simulation-training centers, 25 surgical suites and a medical lab with eight surgical robots that are worth a total of over $8 million. The facility is also USGBC LEED Silver Certified. Currently, the Nicholson Center is a 54,000-square-foot, two-story, $54 million facility.
The Nicholson Center, originally started as a facility in Florida Hospital Celebration Health, an acute care hospital in Celebration, Florida, consists of a network of 24 campuses.
The Nicholson Center emphasizes education through events and training programs. The education department offers continued medical education to healthcare providers including surgeons, allied health professionals, healthcare administrators, residents, nurses and Fellows.Through its Continuing Medical Education (CME) training, a network of surgeons, physicians and clinicians develop and design curriculums for health societies. Curriculums are developed using a six-step medical education curriculum development process created by Kern et al. Continuing medical education credits are acquired through the ACCME-affiliated accrediting agency within the Florida Hospital Network.
The Nicholson Center provides training using operating rooms, clinical and surgical skills labs, simulation training labs and robotics training labs. The facility includes two 935 square-foot operating rooms for training in microsurgery, laparoscopy and computer-assisted surgery, allowing for eight stations per operating room. The labs available for clinical and surgical skills training include 50 stations and wet and dry labs. Lastly, the center’s 1,600 square-foot simulation training lab allows surgeons to perform in simulated scenarios. It is also home to one of the largest robotic training labs in the world, incorporating official da Vinci Surgical System robot simulation training.
After receiving a $4.9 million grant from the Department of Defense and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (United States Army) (TATRC) in 2011, the research focused on the ways telemedicine technology can be used in surgery for both civilian and military purposes, along with studying other areas of research. With this funding, the center grew to be recognized in the technology and medical industries for its research in telesurgery, gaining recognition in publications such as TechCrunch, ZDNet, Engadget and ComputerWorld.
In association with the Department of Defense, the Nicholson Center conducts studies to conclude if remote surgery across hospitals is possible through the Internet. The Feasibility of Telesurgery Across Metropolitan Hospital Systems study determines what the lag time is between two locations, then mimics that lag time using simulators and/or video displays to study how a surgeon responds to it. The Nicholson Center researched to determine if telesurgery can be performed based on bandwidth available and whether a surgeon can handle the lag time that is in place. The research team, headed by Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Roger Smith, had successfully tested the lag time to Ft. Worth, Texas, a location more than 1,200 miles away. This research determined that telesurgery is safe and possible in the United States. The telesurgery research benefits the US military by finding the necessary steps to providing specialized healthcare for wounded soldiers in remote locations. This remote surgery might take the place of evacuating victims to medical facilities or having specialized surgeons in combat hospitals.
The grant also resulted in the first standardized robotic surgery course, with the help of the Veterans Health Administration. This funding helped develop the Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery (FRS) dome, which tests the psychomotor skills of a surgeon within a curriculum. The research also covers cognitive, team training and communication skills. Florida Hospital Nicholson Center also conducts research for Video Gamers vs. Doctors, Surgical Rehearsal, Simulator Effectiveness Comparison and Return on Investment for Robotic Simulators.
Gathered, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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