Everyone Starts Somewhere!
Hi! I'm Dr. Susan Crockett, a Board Certified Ob/Gyn, specializing in Minimally Invasive Gyn Surgery (MIGS) in San Antonio, TX, and the founder of Virtuosa Gyn and the Robotic Surgery Institute, our Intuitive Surgical Epicenter. Our epicenter was created to teach more gyn surgeons how to make surgery easier for more women. RSI TV is our online education platform for teaching these skills. A living textbook.
Welcome!
Imagine What's Possible.
Together.
Me? You're catching me at the starting line of the next phase of my career.
There is a saying among Top Gun culture in our military: Build, Teach, Lead
This is my new starting place. Teaching and Leading.
For you.
I'll never stop learning, (in fact, I love learning from you and all the surgeons I get to work with) but I've done enough building of my skill set and learning to now be able to confidently teach and lead. To step into a public platform and share my knowledge and skills. Please be kind. This takes tremendous courage.
And now we are on the starting line of building something new...this educational site.
But also building you...the future of women's health and robotic surgery.
So why me? Who am I and why should you listen to me?
How did we get here?
I've been in practice for over 30 years, and half of them have been spent as a robotic surgeon. I've done over 3000 robotic surgeries (that's 3000+ happy women with better, easier lives due to our work!), and I rank in the top 1% worldwide across all surgical robotic subspecialties for volume, speed/efficiency, and low complication rates. Our team holds the unofficial world record for shortest console time for a hysterectomy. I now perform around 400 robotic surgeries every year, and I have the distinct honor of being named Intuitive Surgical's first female National Faculty member for Benign Gyn.
Curious how we built this? What we do? What other surgeons are learning and what their surgeries look like?
How else would you know unless you came to visit us in person, or we make our work available online? We jokingly call this site "surgery porn." Voyeurs welcome! lol. Don't worry. We won't tell your secret about where you learned your new skills. But also, we have a saying here, "Take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else who needs it."
You're in the right place.
Come help us build our online living textbook. Share what you know in our community.
Let us know what you want us to teach and I'll do my best to create the lessons.
So where are you starting from?
Maybe you are:
A newly trained robotic gyn surgeon, or you trained a while back but are only dabbling with robotics....only fulfilling a fraction of your potential as a surgeon. You're absolutely in the right place. We can help you expand your skill set and the number of women you can help surgically with robotics.
Or maybe you're an experienced laparoscopic gyn surgeon and you haven't started robotics yet, but your curious, want sustainability for your body and your career, and want to get on board but don't know where to start. We've got you and can help get you to the next level.
A veteran robotic surgeon and you're curious about getting to the next level. Maybe you want to learn more about expanding your types of cases to complex hysterectomy, endometriosis, or myomectomy. Come see how do that.
An Intuitive Surgical Rep - especially UGSRs - welcome. We can give you to education you need to get you quickly up to speed on women's pelvic anatomy, surgery, and benign medical conditions to help you expand the number of robotic surgeries that your surgeons are doing to make more minimally invasive surgery available in your area.
An academic Ob/Gyn - There is tremendous evolution happening in our specialty at the moment. Will obstetrics split from gynecology into two different specialties? I personally believe this is long overdue. What is a MIGS? What is the definition of our subspecialty? Laparoscopic? Robotic? Both? Does it include some overlap with urogyn? What are the high volume private sector MIGS surgeons doing outside of academics? How can we help you best prepare your students and residents to do the best job of taking care of women in the future? Come see. We are innovators and can help expand your vision for your academic programs both from a research and an educational perspective.
A First Surgical Assist - we are dedicated to expanding this role and your skills in the operating room, as we believe it is central to the high efficiency and safety of our team. We offer a live, hands on certification in Gyn Robotic Surgical Assisting. For more information, check out our primary site: https://roboticsurgery.institute.
Operating room staff, administration, or hospital C-Suite - It takes a team! And you are an integral part! Learn what a high efficiency OR team looks like and how they work together with the elegance of a rock band. We will present discussions on the skill sets, people needed, and the business/economics of robotic surgery from the insider's view.
A Medical Student, Resident, or Fellow - Welcome! Let this be your living textbook for women's benign surgery. Ask us your question in the community. You are our future and we are commited to building mentorship and connection for you.
A referring provider - ER, Primary Care, Fertility Specialist, Urgent Care, Hospitalist, Integrative Medicine Specialist, Pain Specialist, Physical Therapist, Pyschologist - Whether you are an MD, DO, NP, PA, PT, or any other medical provider - you are all welcome here. Our site is meant to educate and inform you about what's available to your patients and to help you find skilled surgeons in your area that can do the best for the surgical part in the treatment of your patients. As MIGS surgeons, although we are defined broadly as specialists in complex benign gyn conditions, the majority of our practice is focused on two primary conditions - yucky periods and chronic pelvic pain. That's right. Fibroids, abnormal uterine bleeding, and endometriosis. We welcome your referrals and your suggestions for content.
An interested non-medical person- Maybe you're just looking for educational entertainment. What we do is a blast! It's video game console surgery, and it is radically changing the intricacy and finesse of women's surgical care. Women's pelvic health affects us all, so whether you are a patient, a friend, a partner, sister, mother, husband, brother, father - the health of the women around you affects all of our relationships. Marriages, sexual health, parenting and the family, society. Do you have any idea how many days of work and school are missed each year due to yucky periods and pelvic pain? Gazillions. (Well, maybe I exaggerate just a tad. I don't even know where to start to quantify this, but it's a lot.) Women's health affects us everywhere from a personal to a global economic level, and we are here to educate and to do our small part to raise the awareness and improve the medical and surgical care for all people, everywhere.
Do More Good For More People.
Buckle Up Buttercup.
This is going to be fun.
Glad you're here.
Drop me a comment in the community and let me know what you would like to see.
Let us know what starting line you're on and let us coach you over the finish line to your goals.
I'll do my best to deliver (lol...ob pun!)
And don't forget to enjoy the journey.
Together.
-Susan Crockett, MD