The Blog

Since WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, RRSSC has observed the resulting drastic changes to research and how now, more than ever, it has become increasingly important to be able to plan, scale and create animal models that efficiently deliver meaningful findings. To reach our goal of making in-lab and virtual training programs accessible to more researchers, we are gratified to announce our agreement with InsideScientific, an online environment of resources for life-science researchers. We will be collaborating on new virtual and in-lab training programs. For example, RRSSC recently provided important scientific content for a live online demo session on inhalation anaesthesia for one of Kent’s major European customers. We both look forward to continuing cultivating our relationship. The new alliance is part of our strategy to enable more labs to gain the skills and confidence to accelerate their research designs, improve results, and transfer critical skills to other lab members – this is particularly important as surgical skills play a crucial role in research success and reproducibility of quality data. In addition, by offering improved access to advanced techniques, we believe that scientists will gain an increased understanding of physiological systems and associated diseases and become more optimally equipped to develop effective treatments. InsideScientific founding director Andy Henton remarks, “Together, we will support the global research community and ensure scientists have the critical surgical skills and vision they need to explore and discover new areas of physiology and medicine.”

Online (micro)surgical training at RRSSC (download the PDF) At the René Remie Surgical Skills Centre (RRSSC) training facilities in Almere, The Netherlands, we have trained many surgeons, veterinarians, animal technicians, and scientists. We teach the general principle of surgery in rodents and provide training in a large number of specific (micro)surgical procedures such as catheterizations for chronic blood sampling, implantation of devices, and experimental techniques. The dedicated surgical workstations, personal attention, and relaxed atmosphere during our courses create the ideal circumstances for knowledge transfer. Our website testimonials speak for themselves  (https://www.rrssc.eu/testimonials-2/). Like many other businesses, we are affected by the travel restrictions of our clients due to the Corona pandemic and subsequently, the number of course participants being able to follow our training modules has decreased. Despite the challenges of reduced travelling, we continue to offer hands-on surgery training at our facilities in Almere, The Netherlands. Although we believe that surgical training is best achieved with personal guidance in our dedicated training facilities, we have, after a request from Transonic, decided to set up online surgical training for advanced surgeons and thus expand our training possibilities. With online surgical training, we continue to comply with our mission “To share our experience and enthusiasm for setting and achieving ambitious levels of surgical skills”. This means we have set the highest standard for performing this online surgical training. Both the microscope-vision and overview of the surgical area are provided. Additionally, we offer the possibility to monitor you while performing surgery, using a portable digital microscope. This allows us to guide you through procedures and help you perform difficult steps in the operation. The online communication using Microsoft Teams enables us to invite other specialists in our network to assist. The training sessions are recorded for future reference. Like any surgery, online surgical …