Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Title of entry: The Future is Robotic Surgery. These Students Get Front-Row Seat

About this entry: “The Future Is Robotic Surgery. These Students Get a Front-Row Seat.” transforms a highly technical subject into a human-centered story about innovation in medical education at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Robotic surgery is defined by space: the distance between the surgeon and the team, the choreography of mechanical arms moving within millimeters of one another, and the limited room surrounding an operating table. And historically, there hasn't been bedside space for medical students earger to observe.

Writer Laura Lopez Gonzalez recognized this logistical challenge held the heart of the story. Through vivid feature writing, photography, and video, she invites readers into the operating room to understand not only how robotic surgery works but how UCSF faculty and learners collaborated to redesign surgical training. The story spotlights UCSF’s first-of-its-kind program that certifies medical students as robotic surgery bedside assistants, allowing them to safely participate in real surgeries while gaining rare, hands-on experience in one of medicine’s fastest-growing fields.

Before this feature, the innovation lived largely in academic journals. Lopez Gonzalez translated complex curriculum development into an accessible narrative, showing how faculty and learners co-created a participatory model that expands opportunity while maintaining patient safety.

The piece positioned UCSF as a leader in robotic surgery and a national model for educational excellence, underscoring a clear competitive advantage: innovation in technology matched by innovation in teaching. Dynamic photography and cellphone video captured the distinctive choreography of robotic surgery, bringing readers as close as possible to a space otherwise unseen.