The FDA is looking into the issue to determine whether the growing number of injuries reported is simply because more robotic surgeries are being done, or if they’re being caused by the machine itself or by the surgeons, who, critics argue, may be given inadequate training.

Catherine Mohr, the director of medical research at Intuitive, described the training process to Rock Center. The company requires surgeons to take online training to learn da Vinci-specific terms – like “remote center” – that wouldn’t be found in traditional operating rooms. Surgeons must also practice the robotic surgery at Intuitive in Sunnyvale, Calif., initially on an inanimate object, learning how to move the arms around and generally familiarizing themselves with the machine. After that, they practice on a cadaver or an animal, making the robotic arms move through surgical steps like dissection and sewing.

So they’re taught all the steps – everything that, when put together, makes up a surgery like a hysterectomy. But, in Intuitive’s training environment, a surgeon would not do a practice hysterectomy, something that worries critics of the da Vinci who fear doctors aren’t thoroughly trained on the device before using it with actual patients.

“What you’re not taught is how to actually do that hysterectomy, because that is something that is part of the surgical training,” Mohr told Rock Center. She later adds, “If you know how to do all of those surgical subtasks, putting them in the correct order on a hysterectomy is something that you would know how to do, as a surgeon.”