What is CASIT?

The Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT) is a UCLA-designated research facility with 3,700 sq. ft. including the Gonda Robotic Center, a wet research laboratory, a telecommunications center, a computer simulations facility, an integrated operating room suite, and administrative offices.

The facility maintains a da Vinci surgical robotic surgery system, a human patient simulator, and laparoscopic surgical simulators and tools. Click here  to watch a short video about CASIT and the Gonda/UCLA Robotic Center.

Mission:

The mission of CASIT is to define and advance the state-of-the-art of surgical and interventional technology and to revolutionize surgical education and training. The goals of CASIT are to enable the development of unprecedented accuracy and precision in the performance of minimally invasive procedures; to deliver novel surgical and interventional therapies to patients; and to develop a greater interventional capacity through robotics, informatics, and simulation.

Goals:

• Reduction in healthcare costs (fewer complications)
• Less painful surgeries
• A return of patients to their normal lives more quickly
• Development of technologies that would eliminate surgical and other medical errors
• Improved technologies in telemedicine, telesurgery, and robotic surgery, which would enable surgeons to perform procedures heretofore unimagined
• Enhanced education and training
• Efficient use of wireless connectivity to import and integrate hospital data into the operating room