The Vattikuti Foundation believes in leveraging technological innovation and surgeon education to improve patient outcomes. The KS International Innovation Awards is one such activity of the Foundation conducted with an intent to exhilarate surgical innovation with a competitive spirit at the global level. We hope it will promote best practices to evolve into standards of care.

This year’s contest attracted 92 entries, with registrants from 79 countries. Submissions received from 12 countries were subjected to a multi-step selection process set up by a high-powered international jury.  In addition to Urology (75%), surgical specialties such as Gynecology, Head and Neck, Thoracic, Kidney Transplantation, Joint Replacement, Colorectal, Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic, GI, Pediatrics and even new robotic platforms were well represented. Major judging criteria were Innovation, level of evidence to support the validity of the claim made, and the overall technical quality of the video. The award ceremony was held 19 November 2022 in Miami, Florida, USA.

The day of the awards ceremony was an academic symposium, Humans at the Cutting Edge of Robotic Surgery. The agenda focused on 27 entries which were hand-picked to build a state-of-the-art program to recognize meritorious and high-ranking participants and to give opportunity to present their work in-person before a select group of accomplished peers for an intense discussion.