Dear future urological colleague,

In 2007, the European School of Urology (ESU) embarked on a novel programme to provide dry-lab Hands-on-Training (HOT) sessions in a joint venture with the aid of an unrestricted educational grant from Olympus Medical Systems. This was a new addition to the existing excellent EUREP programme, which has been held in Prague every year since 2003. The HOT sessions were held in dedicated sessions before and after the day’s lectures, and consisted of one-to-one training by talented young urological laparoscopists from across Europe. Since we are unable to teach you laparoscopic surgery in a single HOT encounter, each individual session is a “taster” focused on basic tasks such as spatial orientation with laparoscopic instruments on a simple training model. You will also be trained on practising and mastering intra-corporeal suturing using a basic inert modular based system. Most participants in the past 3 years registered for this new programme and there was a unanimous view amongst those that took part as well as those that gave their time in teaching, and our sponsors, that the ESU-EUREP HOT programme was an unqualified success. Since then, the programme has gone from strength to strength.

In 2010, I am delighted once again to offer you the opportunity to participate in the Laparoscopic HOT programme. Many of you will be well aware of the increasing place of laparoscopic urology within the sphere of operative urology. The HOT sessions will be held immediately before and after the regular EUREP programme of lectures and interactive case discussions, so it will be a long day for you on the day of your session. In each HOT session, your tutors will take personal responsibility to progress you through a variety of basic tasks according to your skill level and proficiency in acquiring new laparoscopic surgical skills. Moreover, those of you who are very keen will also have access to a selected number of workstations exploring technologies other than laparoscopy during scheduled breaks at the conveniently located Olympus stand. Tutors will be available during these times, in order for you to optimise your personal techniques and proficiency levels in other endourological tasks.

As in previous years, I strongly encourage you all to take full advantage of the expertise on hand. You will find full details of the Laparoscopic HOT programme on the EUREP website. Also included on the website is a training video which has been prepared by Olympus featuring the laparoscopic reconstructive techniques contained in the HOT course. It is imperative that you study this DVD before arriving in Prague. In this way, you will be in a position to get the best from your tutors in the time available during the workshops, and you will find that this time will pass very quickly for the most part!

Places in past years have always been oversubscribed and are allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, as there are 360 EUREP registrants this year and only 300 HOT places available. This means that unless you register as early as possible, you may miss out completely, so I implore you not to leave it until the last minute! I‘m sure you will find it a most rewarding and illuminating experience. I do wish you all an enjoyable and positive learning experience in the ESU-HOT initiative in collaboration with Olympus at EUREP 2010.
 
Sincerely yours,