AIMS Academy is a high surgical training school inaugurated on March 9, 2010 in Milan.
The desire to share all the experience of a life dedicated to laparoscopic surgery is what guided Professor Raffaele Pugliese, former president of the Lombard Institute of Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery (ILCAM), to pursue this ambitious project: the realization of a multidisciplinary training center dedicated to the learning and development of minimally invasive surgery within the Niguarda Hospital.

Two international experiences have strongly inspired the creation of the AIMS Academy: the IRCAD – Institut de Recherche contre le Cancers de l’Appareil Digestif in Strasbourg led by Prof Jacques Marescaux since 1992 and MATTU – Minimal Access Therapy Training Unit of Guilford – UK led by Prof Michael Bailey.

The comparison with the experience of IRCAD in Strasbourg represented an important step in the history of the AIMS Academy also for the meeting with Dr Antonello Forgione who had been working for them for several years and who moving to Milan in 2007 contributed to the planning and start-up of the center’s activities until then becoming Scientific Director of the AIMS Academy in 2010.

Due le esperienze internazionali che hanno fortemente ispirato la realizzazione dell’AIMS Academy : l’IRCAD – Institut de Recherche contre le Cancers de l’Appareil Digestif di Strasburgo guidato dal Prof Jacques Marescaux fin dal 1992 ed il MATTU – Minimal Access Therapy Training Unit di Guilford – UK guidato dal Prof Michael Bailey.

Il confronto con l’esperienza dell’IRCAD di Strasburgo ha rappresentato una tappa importante nella storia dell’AIMS Academy anche per l’incontro con il Dr Antonello Forgione che li lavorava da diversi anni e che trasferendosi nel 2007 a Milano ha contribuito alla fase di progettazione ed avviamento delle attività del centro sino poi a diventarne nel 2010 Direttore Scientifico dell’AIMS Academy.

AIMS Academy was built thanks to the important contribution of the Lombardy Region, the Cariplo Foundation and many industrial partners who believed in the project and allowed AIMS to equip itself with the latest generation of technological machinery and modern infrastructures for web mentoring even at a distance. they facilitated collaboration with the most prestigious international training centers with a view to Share-knowledge.
A network of top-level faculties collaborates with the academy and allows us to offer a complete training offer that has been tailored to the real needs of companies and universities.
In the last 20 years the world of surgery has made great strides thanks to the evolution of technologies, therefore patients have the right to operations performed with the most advanced procedures in maximum safety, limiting as much as possible the percentage of returns to hospital due to inexperience that inevitably translates into social costs for the state. To pursue this goal it is essential to experiment with the practices and assimilate them systematically through a new TUTORSHIP model that is not reserved only for the best surgeons.

In this sense, AIMS Academy is a unique center in Italy of its kind as it allows a 360° training experience that is aimed at both experienced surgeons and trainee interested in learning in a practical way using virtual simulators, robotic machinery and wet labs under the guide of an international community of experts, which to entire medical, surgical and nursing teams.

From 2010 to today these are the numbers reached by AIMS Academy, but there is still much to do … together!