I am quite certain that every urologic surgeon in a teaching institution has been confronted by a patient stating, “I just want to be sure you are the one doing the surgery”. My response to this plea has been to explain the importance of medical teaching, assuring the patient that I am present from start to finish, and that I am the one performing any critical steps that I do not feel the training physician has the skills to perform. Before we completed this study, I would give my patients a handout containing several studies documenting improved outcomes at high volume academic centers, as well as studies demonstrating equivalent short-term outcomes for robotic prostatectomies that involved a teaching component. However, long-term oncologic outcomes were lacking, and I wondered whether or not these results were transferable to my practice.

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