Minimally Invasive Surgery Educators Partner to Promote Best Practices

The American Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery (AIMIS) today announced a partnership with the American Society for Women’s Health (ASWH). AIMIS will contribute both expertise in minimally invasive techniques as well as a much-needed business practice component to ASWH’s continuing education curriculum.

“We find in many cases that the doctors and medical staff who complete even high levels of training in minimally invasive techniques face difficulties sustaining minimally invasive practices,” said Dr. K. Warren Volker, CEO and chairman of AIMIS. ”We provide education beyond medical training to help our members’ practices thrive in an environment that hasn’t traditionally been conducive to MIS.”

ASWH provides continuing education programs for practitioners focused in many areas of women’s health, including specialties where minimally invasive practices tend to shine. Obstetrics and gynecology in particular have seen a popularity spike among minimally invasive procedures such as laparoscopic hysterectomy.

“We were administering these training courses and then wondering why MIS in gynecology was not increasing at the rate we’d expected or hoped,” said Dr. Steven McCarus, Chief Medical Officer of AIMIS. Soon Dr. McCarus realized that once the doctors finished their training and returned to their practice, they were settling back into their usual routines and, although they did perform more MIS procedures, they were not turning their practices into true MIS practices.

“They didn’t know how to handle the other aspects of MIS, such as marketing, billing and coding and other back office business solutions necessary to become a successful MIS practice,” he said. “This is at the root of why AIMIS was created-to give doctors help and training beyond how to perform surgical procedures.”

AIMIS is the first of its kind to offer this kind of support to its practitioner members. Marketing, financial training, insurance education and other business practices are, to the organization, as much a part of MIS training as hands-on laparoscopy labs.

ASWH will begin incorporating AIMIS’s supplemental business practice education into its CME program starting in January 2011. To register, please visit aimis.org