Newswise — Daniel B. Herz, MD, a pediatric urological surgeon, has joined the Section of Urology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as director of Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery. This new program launched in January 2013 with the installation of a state-of-the-art da Vinci® surgical system from Intuitive Surgical, and will enhance the current minimally-invasive surgery capabilities at Nationwide Children’s. The initial focus of the program will be Urology, eventually expanding to encompass additional surgical specialties.

Dr. Herz has an extensive background in complex urological procedures and unique expertise with robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. He comes to Nationwide Children’s from the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth where he was director of the Section of Pediatric Urology, associate professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and director of the Pediatric Urology Residency.

Certified by the American Board of Urology in both urology and pediatric urology, Dr. Herz has published extensively in the field of pediatric urology. He received his medical degree from SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn (Downstate Medical Center), and completed his urological residency at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He completed a two-year clinical and research fellowship in pediatric urology at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto.

Dr. Herz is trained in all aspects of pediatric urological surgery; however, his expertise and focus is in robotic assisted laparoscopic minimally invasive urological surgery. His primary research interests are in robotic surgery simulation and outcomes/evidence-based urological surgery.