Surgical Skills Lab Dresden Contributions at the SAGES Congress 2026 in Tampa

At the SAGES Annual Meeting 2026 (Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons), held March 25–28, 2026 in Tampa, Florida (USA), international experts in minimally invasive and endoscopic surgery gathered to exchange knowledge on new technologies, surgical techniques, and innovations in surgical training.

The Surgical Skills Lab Dresden was also represented at the congress. PD Dr. Felix von Bechtolsheim presented the talk “SuPer Outcome – Surgical Performance in robotic esophagectomies and postoperative Outcome.” His presentation examined the relationship between surgical performance during robotic esophagectomies and postoperative patient outcomes.

In addition, PD Dr. Florian Oehme presented the poster “The ASSESS Trial – Benchmarking the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery.” The study focuses on the standardized evaluation of fundamental laparoscopic skills and aims to establish benchmarks for surgical training and performance assessment.

During the congress, the Dresden colleagues also met Dr. Dr. Fiona Kolbinger. The surgeon and scientist works at the intersection of surgery, data science, and artificial intelligence, developing AI-based methods for the analysis of surgical data and to support intraoperative decision-making.

Dr. Dr. Kolbinger is scientifically active in Dresden while also serving as a Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University (USA). She is also the co-founder of the research initiative USE-IT³, which focuses on data-driven surgical research and the development of digital technologies for operative medicine. 

The exchange at the SAGES Congress once again highlighted the international connectivity of Dresden’s surgical research and provided an important platform to further develop projects and collaborations in the field of minimally invasive and robotic surgery.