The Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery at The Ohio State University Medical Center recently completed an agreement to receive a $965,000 grant over the next three years from Covidien, an international healthcare device and medical supply company, to help support educational and training programs in minimally invasive surgery.

"The funding will help to support clinical and research fellowship opportunities offered by the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery," says Dr. W. Scott Melvin, professor of surgery, chief of the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, and director of the center. "The grant will allow the center to add a variety of structured programs in laparoscopic education for residents, fellows, and medical students, as well as practicing surgeons." The center’s programs provide didactic, practical, and laboratory experiences.

The center, led by Dr. Melvin since its inception in 1999, is dedicated to the achievement of excellence in patient care, clinical training, research, and outcomes studies examining the techniques and technology of minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Melvin and colleagues have maintained continuous funding for educational programs in minimally invasive surgery at Ohio State since 1995.

"This new funding will allow the center to continue to offer instruction in the techniques of minimally invasive surgery to surgeons and practicing physicians, on the regional, national, and international stage," he says. "The center will also continue to offer new courses focused on emerging technologies and techniques recently introduced to surgeons in the United States, such as natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), and other new endolumenal surgical procedures."

NOTES is an "incisionless" technique in which the surgeon gains access to the patient’s abdominal cavity through the mouth, instead of cutting through the outside of the body. The technique, which was pioneered by efforts at Ohio State, can be adapted for other procedures in the body by using other natural entry points. The approach leaves no outside scarring, results in no postoperative pain, and may reduce patients’ recovery times.