Anthony G. Gallagher - Biography#

Anthony Gallagher is currently Director of Research and Learning at one of the leading robotic training and research centres in Europe and the world.

He was the first academic from Ireland to be awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship. At Yale, he was the scientific lead in the first prospective, randomized double-blinded study of virtual reality training for improved operating room performance. The study has served as the template for simulation and training study designs for the next 1½ decades. The American College of Surgeons established the accredited Educational Institutes based on this evidence.

He was advisor to the FDA in 2004 when for the first time they allowed simulation-based training as an acceptable training pathway for the rollout of a new technology (i.e., carotid artery stenting with embolic protection, JAMA 2004)

In recognition of the scientific approach he has brought to education and training in surgery he gave The Hamilton Russell Memorial Lecture, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Perth, and was also the International Education Visitor.

At NextMed/Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR22), Los Angeles, California, USA and in recognition of the scientific work on simulation validation in medicine he was presented with the 20th Satava Award.

In a study published by the Journal of Surgical Education, on the 100 most cited articles in the area of surgical education he achieved the greatest number of first author publications (8) in the top 100, authored two of the top ten ranked articles including the number one cited paper.

His approach to surgical training now has Level 1 scientific evidence to support with a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective, randomized, and blinded clinical trials using this approach for training surgical and procedural skills (published in Annals of Surgery,) this approach demonstrated a 60% reduction in intra-operative performance errors in comparison to the quality assured conventional training.