From left to right: Hunter Skoog, Robert Wineski and Nick Rivers were the first residents to receive a certification for the Inspire device and for transoral robotic surgery.
Three residents in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine have received the first certifications of their kind in the United States. Hunter Skoog and Robert Wineski, fifth year residents in the Department of Otolaryngology, were trained to place the FDA-approved nerve simulator that is used to treat patients with obstructive sleep apnea.
Their certification was led by Kirk Withrow, M.D., who was the first surgeon in Alabama to implant the device back in 2015. Since then, he has implanted more than 400 devices, and has trained two residents to be able to do the same.
Earlier this month, Nick Rivers, a third-year resident in the UAB Department of Otolaryngology, completed the requirements to be certified in transoral robotic surgery. Using the surgical robot this way has allowed ENT surgeons to perform historically extensive and invasive surgeries in a safer and more efficient way.
Rivers’ training was led by UAB Department of Otolaryngology Associate Professor Harishanker Jeyarajan, M.D., who has been involved in a number of case series as well as RO1 funded grant in TORS.
“UAB’s resident TORS curriculum is the first in the world to provide a structured training program incorporating online modules, scheduled didactic courses and practical experience with recorded and audited case log,” Jevarajan said. “There is a growing expansion of the utility of robotics across ENT specialties, and we want to provide our residents the opportunity to learn and acquire this training.”
To learn more about the UAB Department of Otolaryngology, click here.