RIYADH: As part of a comprehensive program designed by Alfaisal University to provide practical experience to its students, the university has sent some of its medical students abroad for a month-long stay in Temple, Texas, where they learnt about research activities taking place and gained first-hand experience of high-tech surgical techniques.
The Boeing Company, one of the founders of Alfaisal University, also sponsored 15 MBA students for a leadership development program that provided perspectives on effectively operating in a shifting global economy.
Alfaisal University offers a wide range of courses in its four colleges: business, engineering, medicine, and science. The courses have been designed in collaboration with distinguished international academic partners to satisfy the local and international market demands and prepare students for employment.
In July this year, 14 medical students got some hands-on training using the da Vinci Surgery System at Scott and White academic medical center in Texas.
Dr. Kristofer Wagner, director of robotics surgery at Scott and White, explained the equipment, as Dr. Timothy Ruddell, a surgical resident, worked the controls.
The da Vinci system is powered by robot technology that allows the surgeon’s hand movements to be scaled, filtered and translated into precise movements of the instrument working inside the patient’s body.
Several students observed the practice procedures on the monitor used by Ruddell, while others stood next to the operating room table and watched the robotic arms make sutures.
Eventually, the students had an opportunity-training program projected on the monitor. They were able to practice suturing, cauterizing and cutting techniques.
Scott and White has been hosting students from Saudi Arabia for summer medical research programs since 2010.