Aditya Bagrodia
Appearances
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
And you visually just see them coming through. And that's got to be satisfying, just seeing your little jar fill up progressively with stones, especially like a nice 1.8 centimeter, 2 centimeter big boy. So that's cool. So you made a company. You partnered with industry or was this all homegrown?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Okay. So you got a little money, a grant funding, kind of typical routes as well? Yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
I'm sure if you went to a World Congress of Endourology meeting and commiserated over some lemonade or other stone preventative beverages, everybody's like, yeah, Roger, we'll chip in some money for that. So you're at version two now. And basically a ureteroscope with suction capabilities? Yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Roger, how's it going today?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So why not like just, you know, you have a three channel ureter scope, put on like a 60cc syringe. You've done some basketing and just aspirate.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Yeah, we are good friends. Roger's had the, I guess, pleasure or displeasure of helping me get my sea legs on a surfboard. So he's taken us out. It's been super fun. You know, one of the things I've been most impressed with getting to know Roger is it's the clinical care. It's the innovation, problem solving, remaining non-intimidated by new technologies. And maybe we'll get into that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
I love it. I love it. So, you know, over the last, I think at least since I've been a trainee, which is getting further and further away, but in my prime ureteroscopy days, it was baskets and it was lasers. That was 2010, 2011. So surely you're not the first person or only person that's thought about this and come up with something. Are there other suction devices out there? Are they all...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Kind of similar or are they meaningfully different?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Okay. This one's a little bit harder for me to conceptualize. I'm thinking like, is it almost like a dual lumen? One is your suction element of it.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So today we're going to talk about suction devices and suction technologies and kidney stone treatment. And I'm excited. You know, taking a walk down memory lane, largely it was lasers, fragment, basket retrieval for as long as that was required. Then dusting kind of came on the scene as like a new thing. And that seems to be kind of a...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Exactly. Okay, okay. Yeah. So your scope has to be out for large fragments to actually come through. Exactly. Yeah, I'm sorry. So that's kind of like CVAC one. Yeah. Like you're deploying it ureoscopically wherever you want it.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
with this flexible tip, you've done your business, fragmented, et cetera, then you pull out your scope and ostensibly the sheath remains in whatever calyx of interest or the pelvis, suction's out, then you take a look back up. Did it do a good job or not? Maybe you basket a few things and call it a day. Totally, exactly. You gotta go back up there, take a look at it,
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Apart from the continuous irrigation and aspiration with CVAC, it's essentially a ureter scope with a larger working port. The DISC? Well, no, the disc sounds like it's a ureteroscope. It's a ureteroscope with two stopcocks on it. So that I get. I'm trying to understand how CVAC, which sounds like it's got a larger port to accommodate slightly larger fragments.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Like I'm envisioning, you know, you still have your camera, obviously. You have your light core light source coming through. And then you've got your suctioning and aspirating channels, and then ability to work through one of those.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So what's the overall French of the CVAC system?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
ongoing debate in the minimally invasive endourology world. And then for PCNLs, it was like a cyber one, which was, I think, pulverized the stone and then somehow suctioned it up. Those were kind of the tools that I had in my toolkit, more or less. And maybe just ask you to kind of comment on, you know, what's transpired over the last decade or so.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
And is the CVEC system, is that reusable? It's a single use. Single use. Yeah. Okay. So I think you walked us through, you know, the mechanics of it. I think getting an access sheath up or an accommodating ureter without an access sheath, then you kind of do the work. Compared and contrasted some of the pros and cons of fans, discs, and CVEC.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
so i mean it all sounds compelling you know off the top of my head the main outcome of interest would be stone free rates as you've kind of outlined and then of course or times and then balancing that ostensible saving of over time with costs of a reusable you
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Okay. What does the data show? It's safe. You've done it in pigs. You've done it in humans. Reported your first in man. You're not doing anything that's unexpected with a, you read Roscoe with an access sheet.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Well, actually, I was thinking about this upcoming podcast and just...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
That's cool. I mean, it's kind of like a PSA recurrence predates a metastasis predates cancer specific survival. And I think it's expected that a stone free, a better stone free status helps mitigate some of these unpleasant, you know, reoperations, ER visits, pyelonephritis, etc. Yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Yeah, not just the volume, but the surface texture, you know, is it jaggedy? Is it smooth? Does that impact passability? Yeah. Then, of course, the patient-specific factors, you know, is there ureter-like? Is there any evidence of X, Y, and Z? Sure.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Well, I do still partake in some endourology, predominantly for upper tract patients, and it does seem like this could be a pretty cool application because it is so...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
challenging many times to get biopsies and so forth or if you're doing an ablation whether that's laser or whatnot to have all those cancer cells immediately aspirate it sounds cool now with that being said by the way i have seen that done i i people using cvac it's not an indication for it but just sucking the tumor cells into the canister and there it is right there
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Hey, send that out to your pathologist and, you know, half of it for Cyto, half for pathology. Maybe I should get an idea of what you're dealing with. So if and when I want to do that, I mean, is this like going from open surgery to laparoscopy? Is this like fairly incremental? Could I do this having, you know, been out of... high-volume endourology for 8, 10 years? Oh, totally, yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
If you had to take a step, what percentage of uretroscopic cases are using some type of suction platform currently?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
That's so cool. Now, I mean, obviously, patient outcomes, stone-free rates, decreased infection rates, those are ultra compelling and major, major outcomes of interest. What about OR time? I mean, every trip that you don't have to take grabbing a basket or every additional minute or two, you don't have to fragment as you're dusting.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Does it lead to a shorter OR time once you've kind of gotten beyond a learning curve? Is it longer? You know, obviously I've never done this. What's your kind of gestalt on maybe surgeon satisfaction and surgeon specific factors that could be improved?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's say that I am a urologist who does a decent bit of urology, ureteroscopy, excuse me, and I'm interested in this. Like I want to check it out, you know, CVAC, maybe have CVAC and fans, the dens, all those things.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Okay, but maybe something just to like transmit your video feed.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
All right. We got your, you know, adopting a new technology, helping prevent stones, downstream episodes, as well as infections. It kind of makes sense. I mean, it sounds like to me that it's revolutionary, at least in theory. And, you know, sometimes I'm sure it takes a little while for the traction to catch up. Actually, it's amazing. Just two weeks ago, I did an episode with Manny Menon on...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
history of robotic surgery and he just kind of walked through his whole experience and i personally think it's amazing i mean you know you've distilled it down into a 45 minute conversation we had an idea we did this version one version two and now here we are with procedure specific cpt codes reimbursement and data that it seems to appear to really help out with patient centered outcomes most importantly but it sounds super duper exciting roger
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you know, I think for me a major takeaway is as clinicians and surgeons, we recognize our, let's call it pain points, opportunities, however you want to phrase it, in a way that's different from anybody else.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
And instead of letting it kind of continuously nag at you, trying to do something about it and not being intimidated by a process that seems daunting and foreign is amazing. That's been my major takeaway. But more importantly, we'd be interested in your final thoughts and messages for our listenership.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
I love it. I love it. Well, Roger, thanks for your time. Thanks for your insight. Thanks for your contributions to urology. I have no doubt they're going to be profound. They already are. And I also have no doubt that in about 10 or 15 years, we're going to be recording a Legends in Urology episode about how suction devices totally transformed ureteroscopy.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So appreciate your time and your expertise, Roger. It was fantastic. Thank you, Aditya. I really appreciate you letting me speak here on Backtable.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bhairodia and Jose Silva.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon, with support from Aaron Bowles, Josh McWhirter, and Josh Spencer.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Absolutely. Yeah, no, it's perfect. I mean, the three main approaches are percutaneous, and it still blows my mind that once upon a time, a couple of urologists decided to start harpooning through the back, aiming for a fairly small area, and just kind of seeing how that all went. Yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So, okay, maybe to bring it to a little bit more contemporary times, if we're talking about the endoscopic options, percutaneous nephrolithotomy or ureteroscopy, now we're looking at breaking stones up, removing them, fragmenting them to really teeny tiny pieces that ostensibly pass... Is that it or is there more going on here?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
You know, it's amazing. Before I committed to a career in oncology, one of my first mentors was Peggy Pearl, who's an amazing, very rigorous stone surgeon. And we wrote a paper on natural history of visual fragments after PCNL. I think you might be quoting ureteroscopy data, but it was spot on. And Peggy would, let's just say, diligently analyze
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
painstakingly get every residual fragments out because her belief was anything left behind was going to misbehave or certainly could misbehave.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Well, you know, on the provider side, you know, maybe two or three times a year, feeling reasonably well-trained in ureteroscopy over the course of my residency and fellowship, I'll do a stone case. And I always really appreciate the endourologist, too, who I think really hold themselves accountable to doing their level best with the stone because...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
in my opinion not having this as my passion and my livelihood you know sometimes just chipping away at that little fella and if it's a hard hard stone having that What's the word I'm looking for here? That committedness to dust it, if that's the route that you're going to go, or to take 55 trips up to get those little fragments out with your basket du jour. It really is a commitment.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
It can be time consuming. You're also kind of eyeballing what's a clinically significant fragment. I have a caliper there that's saying that little fragment's 2.3 millimeters and this one's 1.6. So I think there's a lot of human nature. You know, if it's your birthday, it's a Friday and you want to get out of there and you're just chiseling away. Maybe you say, you know what?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Those, those stones should pass.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So I think the fragment and basket retrieval, that's laborious. Dusting, I think that opens itself to quite a bit of interpretation. And dare I say that this kind of dilemma is what led to your interest in how do we do better?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Yeah, please do. I mean, I'm sure you weren't like, these are the, like you go get like a Hoover and make it teeny tiny and stick it on the back of a scope. Like.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Yeah, that's cool. I mean, some just general question. I'm sure this was like in the early science days, like there's got to be like a millimeters of mercury suction pressure where you collapse the whole system and create hickeys in the calyces. Did those things happen? And how did you actually... visualize what was like taking place.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
I mean, did you perk in on one side and your CVAC in on the other side?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Backtable, your source for all things urology. You can find all previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and on backtable.com. This is Aditya Bagrodia as your host this week. And I'm thrilled to invite our guest today, Dr. Roger Sir, who's one of my partners here at UC San Diego. He's a tremendous clinician, tremendous surgeon, great friend and partner.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
And then just like random things, like without being an expert on this, like what if like a three millimeter fragment that's greater than the diameter of the hose, if you will, gets like lodged? Like, how did you determine what's going to be, you know, is this going to be six French? Because that's roughly your reader scope. Is it going to be... Well... How did you sort this stuff out?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 197 Suction Devices in Urology: Improving Stone Removal with Dr. Roger Sur
So, well, I guess now, at least if you're seeing it, you feel like, okay, we can turn the suction off, let that stone drop out, maybe bust it up a couple of times or go gather up the rest of it and then come back and basket or do whatever we'd like.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 186 Blue Light Cystoscopy: Improving Bladder Cancer Detection with Dr. Suzanne Merrill
Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe, rate the podcast five stars, and share with a friend.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 186 Blue Light Cystoscopy: Improving Bladder Cancer Detection with Dr. Suzanne Merrill
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 186 Blue Light Cystoscopy: Improving Bladder Cancer Detection with Dr. Suzanne Merrill
And Ness Smith-Zavidoff. Design and digital marketing led by Brian Schmitz. With support from Devante Delbrun. Social media and PR by Chi Ding. Administrative support provided by Jamila Kinabru.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
I think at that time, it kind of seems like there is a critical energy mass accumulating for something special, something big. This is my sense, just learning a little bit about you. Is it accurate?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And can you talk a little bit about getting to Detroit and going from really important work in nephrolithiasis continually funded by the NIH to changing the way that urologic surgery and urologic cancer surgery is performed?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So things were working well, you've got experience in grant writing, funding, basic translational clinical research, now getting some administrative experience at your new position at UMass. And how long were you at UMass? I was a chair there for 14 years. All right. So that was a good early, mid-career experience. And what prompted the next change?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And the next stop was, of course, Henry Ford.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So obviously, or it seems obvious to me that that's really where all the pieces of the puzzle really started coming together in a major way to have such a dramatic impact. And maybe just walk us through that. I mean, surely it wasn't just you woke up one day and you said, I want to revolutionize the way prostatectomy is done. Here's how I'm gonna do it.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Or there's this new robot that you heard about, or there's this amazing foundation. Tell us a little bit about the Vatikuti Institute, of course. How did that develop organically, intentionally, serendipitously? Walk us through that, please.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Visit their website or stop by Siemens Healthineers booth at the local and national American Urological Association and Large Urology Group Practice Association meetings.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Now, back to the show. This is Aditya Begrodia as your host this week, and I'm very excited to introduce our guest today, Dr. Mani Menon from the Department of Urology at Mount Sinai Health Systems, where he serves as a professor and director of education and director of precision prostatectomy. Dr. Menon, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Good to see you.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Yeah, you got to meet people where they're at at the end of the day, right? And we live 30 minutes from the border. There are cultural things undoubtedly that impact us. So you show up in Detroit and you've got somebody that you can relate to and put together a sound business proposal, a plan. You've got an idea.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Thank you for inviting me, having me here. It's an absolute honor. I had to really curtail the introduction because that could nearly certainly take the whole hour-long episode here.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Yep. That's a reasonable pilot program, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and let's talk a little bit about Intuitive. You know, once upon a time, I think academics and industry were seen as difficult to coexist. But I would say now and certainly it would seem the relationship that you all had with Intuitive was extremely beneficial to all parties, starting with the patients.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Tell us a little bit about that, if you could.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
but without being hyperbolic here, Dr. Madden's absolute legend in our field, largely known as the father of robotic surgery, a gold cystoscope winner, recipient of an Indian presidential citation in the Smithsonian Institute as a part of a recognition of American immigrants. And I also learned the first Indian surgical trainee at Johns Hopkins University. Is this actually all true, Dr. Menon?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Well, that's important. I think maintaining that balance, especially when you're on the ground floor, so to speak. And all right. So, so they took a chance on, you took a chance on them. You've got your robot, you've got the support of the Institute and time to do something. And walk us a little bit through that. I mean, did you do some lab prostates and see how that went?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Did you have people come in and do some lab prostates? Did you travel? Did you do pig labs? I mean, or was it like, let's just find a patient, see how it goes? How did that whole process work to one day I'm going to try to do a robotic prostatectomy?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
But the rest of it is. Well, again, it's an honor. And I think it's worthwhile to start at the beginning. I would love to hear it. Why medicine? How urology transitioning from India to America? Can you tell us a little bit about that process? Well, it...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Well, that's amazing. I mean, it shares so much humility that, first off, I can learn something from other people and a commitment, both at your end and at the end of your French guests that would ostensibly leave their status quo one week a month for up to a year. And then being open to receiving some input from a fellow, no matter how naturally talented and gifted they may be.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And it sounds like it worked, you know, that maybe four or five cases in, it's like the first time you get out to play golf and you hit a decent shot, you're like, I think I'd like to keep coming back because that felt really good. Yep.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So those were the early days, and I love you kind of walking through that in some degree of granularity. Did you ever think about quitting? Did it ever seem like, you know what, this is brutal, this is a beat, this is not going anywhere?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Oh, that's a, yeah, I mean, that would get you thinking once or twice when you get in there and try something new, particularly, especially perhaps if there were skeptics. And I'm curious, were there skeptics?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Early adopter.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So it sounds like maybe around case 1820, you were starting to kind of understand and appreciate that you touched upon something potentially disruptive. And on the one hand, the rest is history. On the other hand, it's been nearly a quarter of a century since then. And maybe I'll ask you to reflect a little bit on the changes.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
I mean, clearly the market share of robotic prostatectomy is an obvious one, but the changes kind of in terms of the operation and how it's been refined, is that meaningful? Is it incremental? And perhaps ask the same question about the technology. and how it's advanced. Is that meaningful? Is it incremental? First, let me talk about the technology.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Okay, so the first spot that you landed was Philadelphia. Is that right?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
That's a perfect analogy. We were just in Tucson for the Arizona Electric Society and I rented a car. It was a Corolla, a 2024 Corolla compared to my 2008 CR-V. I felt like I was in a luxury car that was incredible with all types of bells and whistles and safety features. So the technology's advanced and as somebody who's been in urology for, gosh, almost 15 years, I certainly see it advance.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And sometimes I say this is a big change and sometimes it seems a bit more incremental. Maybe just to put something kind of concrete out there, The new DaVinci platform, is it exciting to you? And the, I would say, renewed interest in other robotic platforms, is it exciting to you?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So just for a minute, let's maybe think back to the time. This is pre-email, smartphones, maybe a letter here or there, international flights, leap of faith. I'm heading to Philadelphia with a few bucks in my pocket. Just walk us through a little bit of How old were you? What stage of your life? What were you thinking? And what does this actually look like in a somewhat granular fashion?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
It's a timeless question, even for anybody just starting out their career and they're asked that inevitable question of how many of these have you done? Yes. I mean, first off, I think you got to be honest, starting out with training. Here's where the kind of numbers come from. In this particular instance, I would tell them that my experience with
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
open surgery, and an effort to improve patient outcomes. We're exploring things that are novel, disruptive. But with that, there come some unknowns, some risks, explicitly risks specific to laparoscopy, to not having your hands in there, being able to feel to do something a I would try to quantify that. I think my general style is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And I think that's precisely what I do for the patient. And then ultimately say, kind of got our workhorse, which I'm familiar with, and we've got something new that I'm exploring and can look you in the eyes and say, I think I can help you and likely not hurt you through this novel approach. What appeals to you? And we go with that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
I mean, I love that. And it really does come back to the patients. And I think a lot of us practice in different environments with different demographics. And again, I think meeting people where they're at. And sometimes when you have the ability or lack of ability to do a lot of shopping around, you have a specialist type of relationship and that's tremendous.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And I would say, you know, the rest is history. It seems like you became the destination to learn about, to refine robotic surgery. I mean, you know, literally, honest to God, this morning from eight to nine, I gave a lecture to the radiation oncology residents and staff, GU staff. And we talked about advances in surgery and the last 20 minutes was a narrated robotic prostatectomy that I'd done.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And we just kind of walked through it and to show that, to teach that, to talk about the intrafascial planes, the extrafascial planes, the hood sparing, show them that anatomy, when to stay close and far from the urethra. was so cool. So I think for education, for outcomes, for refinement of a surgery, it's been just absolutely massive, not just in urology, of course, but across the way.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And with that, when you reflect at this stage of your career on what you've been able to do Maybe I just ask you as we come up on an hour to talk a little bit about, you know, the best parts of your legacy. I think it's the people I've trained.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So there's no periodic wows these days. Those are maybe he sticks to that's interesting.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Maybe a couple of additional contributions, but I can tell you as a urologist, as a open and robotic surgeon, as an Indian American urologist, the impact that you've had on our field directly, indirectly as a part of your legacy, the Mennonites, if you will, that are out there spreading the gospel is tremendous. So this has been an absolute honor for me to spend an hour with you and hear about the
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
genesis of this massively, massively important tool in our toolkit. And let's see what the future holds.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Absolutely.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Well, let's see what the future holds. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bhandari. Bye. Bye.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon, with support from Aaron Bowles, Josh McWhirter, and Josh Spencer.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So it was not too much to take at that point. Yes. How about specifically... Put us in the shoes of being an international medical graduate in the early 70s. Do you recall, were Indians favorably considered as hardworking, integrated? Culturally, did you fit in? Were there lingering racist undertones?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Well, yeah, I think that's a... open perspective, certainly. I can imagine some of those experiences could lead to some persistent anger, irritation, discontentment, but it sounds like you were able to see the silver linings, maybe get a little bit of a benefit of the doubt, particularly at Hopkins, where it seems like your academic career really started accelerating under the mentorship of
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Dr. Walsh, Dr. Catalona, and some of the absolute thought leaders in her field. And tell us a little bit about that. Being there in that environment, did it mold you? Was it consistent with the way that you operated?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
All right. So in general supported, you'd mentioned earlier that you'd fallen into some disfavor with the chairman of surgery at your home institution. And I was curious, was this disruptive behavior? dynamic energy always kind of a part and parcel of your MO? Or was this something that was cultivated and developed? Those were just the cards that were dealt to me.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So transformative experience at Hopkins. And I have to imagine you were offered to stay there for as long as you wanted, but you went out to seek your own fortune, so to speak. Is that right?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
And initially it sounds like your interest was both in nephrolithiasis, kidney stones, as well as cancer in the early days. Is that correct, Dr. Menon?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Okay. Okay. And then across your path, particularly maybe in St. Louis, you cross-pollinated with some of the other notable greats in laparoscopic surgery. Did that happen? Kavusi, Klayman, did you all overlap?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Backtable, your source for all things urology. You can find all previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and on backtable.com. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. From concept to completion, there's a lot to consider when building a theranostics or PSMA PET-CT imaging program.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 189 Legends of Urology: Origins of Robotic Surgery with Dr Mani Menon
So amazing pedigree, awesome self-starter story coming from India, starting at a community program, winding up at Hopkins, you know, certainly at the time, unequivocally, probably the greatest. Urology program in the country, in the world, moving on to places like WashU, incubators of a lot of development.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 194 IRP Monitoring: Enhancing Patient Outcomes in Urology with Dr. Julie Riley
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 194 IRP Monitoring: Enhancing Patient Outcomes in Urology with Dr. Julie Riley
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva. Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon, with support from Josh McWhirter, Aaron Bowles, Nick Shellcross.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 194 IRP Monitoring: Enhancing Patient Outcomes in Urology with Dr. Julie Riley
The content in this podcast is the opinion of Dr. Julie Riley and does not represent the opinion of Boston Scientific.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 193 Bladder Cancer Innovations: ESMO 2024 Highlights with Dr. Andrea Apolo
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva. Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon with support from Josh McWhirter, Aaron Bolz, Josh Spencer. Design and digital marketing led by Brian Schmitz.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 187 Urology Trends: AUA 2023 Census Report Highlights with Dr. Amanda North and Dr. Matthew Nielsen
Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe, rate the podcast five stars, and share with a friend. If you have any questions or comments, DM us at underscore Backtable on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva. Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon with support from Josh McWhirter, Aaron Bowles, Nick Shellcross.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 187 Urology Trends: AUA 2023 Census Report Highlights with Dr. Amanda North and Dr. Matthew Nielsen
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 188 Testosterone Therapy Today: Clinical Advances and Safety with Dr. Abraham Morgentaler
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 188 Testosterone Therapy Today: Clinical Advances and Safety with Dr. Abraham Morgentaler
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva. Our audio team is led by Kieran Gannon, with support from Josh McWhirter, Aaron Boles, Josh Spencer. Design and digital marketing led by Brian Schmitz.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 196 Biodesign Insights: Embracing Risk and Innovation with Dr. Christopher Kinsella
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Ep. 196 Biodesign Insights: Embracing Risk and Innovation with Dr. Christopher Kinsella
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bhairodia and Jose Silva.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 192 Closing the Gender Gap in Urology with Dr. Yahir Santiago-Lastra
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 192 Closing the Gender Gap in Urology with Dr. Yahir Santiago-Lastra
Backtable is hosted by Aditya Bagrodia and Jose Silva.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 192 Closing the Gender Gap in Urology with Dr. Yahir Santiago-Lastra
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