Once again, it brings me much pleasure to share some exciting news with you. On November 6-7, I had the pleasure and rare opportunity to obtain the support of Coloplast in providing an all expense paid, advanced training session for three of UTHealth East Texas’ finest employees. LaTonya Brown, Jackie Anderson, and Cory Helms all received an official certificate of completion for the “Minimally Invasive Infrapubic Approach for the Coloplast Titan Penile Prosthesis.” One of my mentors and dear friend, Dr. Paul Perito of Coral Gables/Miami, Florida, a household name in urology and male reconstructive surgeries worldwide, hosted them for a Thursday night of didactics: interactive learning of anatomy, techniques, and surgical reasoning. Their already solid and existing knowledge base and surgical skill set for penile prosthetic implants that I have personally taught them was capitalized upon with his expertise. Then Friday, the following morning, each of them actively participated in the operating suites with Dr. Perito, assisting him in several surgeries, both new implants and revision cases—he essentially honed, sharpened, and perfected their surgical confidence and clinical acumen. This program is not new, as a few high-volume urologists from across the country have been able to send a first assist but have never asked to send his entire team—Coloplast and Dr. Perito have never hosted a surgical team before this event. And more often than not, two of them are scrubbing my cases at the same time, so the “team” approach was even more of a success.
As you already are aware, on Thursday, August 28, Coloplast honored me with a “Center of Excellence” for erectile dysfunction: consultations, patient education/outreach programs, physician instruction/cadaver labs, seminars, and penile implants/reconstructive surgeries. We have successfully built a top notch, men’s health and surgical program for UTHealth East Texas, and now we can support it by having three surgical employees that are primed and sharpened—the best of the best.
Achieving, owning, and boasting a COE is spectacular, but coupling it with these newly certified OR staff should not only strengthen the UTHSCT portfolio and brand, but will further promote confidence, quality assurance, and efficiency while maintaining low infection rates, patient safety and satisfaction, and improving overall outcomes. This will highlight the great work and reputation of our organization.
