By Stéphane Alaux, E Reputation Expert Founder of E Réputation Net Wash
Doctor Giolitto, former Head of Urology Clinic, talks about the progress in urology in the non-invasive treatment of prostate adenoma.
What is your background?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: I was born in Grenoble, into a family of teachers, the grandson of an Italian immigrant from the Piedmontese mountains who, shortly before the First World War, crossed the Alps on foot to escape a very poor region and seek work in France.
I have always been surrounded by an atmosphere where the love of family was in harmony with the values of effort, work and service to others. It was therefore quite natural that I chose to study medicine.
Tell us about your most memorable professional experience?
Jean Pierre Giolitto: My professional life has been marked by many significant periods, but I remember my first hospital internships, as a student in my fourth year, where I discovered the world of the hospital, with the suffering of the patients on the one hand, and the impressive knowledge of the professors on the other, and my position between the two, too young to pretend to heal and feeling uneasy about the patients. Gradually, working together and learning from each other allowed me to gain competence and confidence.
His ethics left a deep impression on you.
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: His qualities were numerous and his example imposed respect.
Human qualities first of all, attentive listening to the patient whatever his complaints. Great rigour in the diagnostic stage and the choice of the best therapy adapted to each case, always respecting the patient’s choices, once the patient is well informed about his condition. Ethics in daily life but without neglecting the convivial aspect or the humour to escape from time to time the stress of the surgeon’s job and his desire to succeed.
Tell us about your experience as former Head of the Urology Clinic at the Polyclinic les Bleuets in Reims?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto : I was installed for 20 years at the Les Bleuets clinic in Reims as a private practitioner.
This period of my professional life was fulfilling and enriching for me. Working in a large establishment, but still on a human scale, with up to date teams and equipment allowing me to practice my speciality in the best safety conditions with the most advanced techniques. Creating and developing a loyal patient base which has allowed me to build strong relationships with many patients and colleagues.
Que pouvez-vous nous dire sur la pratique de la cœlioscopie ?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto : Cette technique, notamment en chirurgie digestive, permet d’enlever une partie du côlon ou du rectum sans avoir à utiliser de grandes ouvertures douloureuses et à prolonger la durée de l’hospitalisation. La laparoscopie a été inventée dans les années 1990. Or, en 2014, nous avons constaté que seulement 30% des équipes la pratiquaient en chirurgie digestive.
La laparoscopie est donc particulièrement difficile et je sais de quoi je parle en tant que chirurgien professionnel ayant déjà pratiqué cette technique. Il est important de savoir que la chirurgie robotique n’est rien d’autre qu’une amélioration de la pratique de la laparoscopie, car je pense qu’à l’avenir, la majorité des patients bénéficieront de la laparoscopie assistée par robot.
Why does robotics improve laparoscopy Jean-Pierre Giolitto?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: Quite simply because the operator works in 3 dimensions whereas in traditional laparoscopy, he is in 2 dimensions. With the help of robotics, the operator has a more ergonomic, more intuitive and more precise gesture. In addition to facilitating the surgeon’s work, robot-assisted laparoscopy has many advantages for the patient: it reduces postoperative pain, accelerates the resumption of intestinal transit, reduces the hospital stay and allows the patient to resume his usual activities more quickly. Furthermore, as far as cancer is concerned, we can hope that robotic surgery will improve the quality of the removal of cancers, lymph nodes and tumours. Personally, I can only welcome the technical progress that improves the conditions of laparoscopy.
Tell us more about the evolution of your specialty?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: My specialty has evolved continuously over the last 30 years. Classic surgery has gradually given way to mini-invasive techniques: endoscopy, i.e. examination and intervention through the natural urinary tract (e.g. intervention for prostate adenoma, bladder tumours or kidney stones) and laparoscopy, i.e. surgery of the abdomen through small holes, eliminating the classic scars (interventions for kidney or prostate cancer in particular.)
Tell us more about the evolution of your specialty?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: My specialty has evolved continuously over the last 30 years. Classic surgery has gradually given way to mini-invasive techniques: endoscopy, i.e. examination and intervention through the natural urinary tract (e.g. intervention for prostate adenoma, bladder tumours or kidney stones) and laparoscopy, i.e. surgery of the abdomen through small holes, eliminating the classic scars (interventions for kidney or prostate cancer in particular.)
Have you trained other surgeons in laparoscopy?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: I was interested and trained very early in laparoscopic techniques applied to urology. I was indeed convinced of the benefits for the patient in terms of postoperative pain, length of hospitalisation and time to return to a normal life.
With this experience, I was happy to share it with other more novice surgeons. Thus, in the form of the classic companionship in surgery, I received many French and European surgeons to share this experience with them. I also had to travel many times in France, Belgium and Switzerland. To assist and operate on patients with this new method.
Judicial expert at the Court of Appeal of Reims.
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: In parallel with this work, I became interested in the field of medical expertise.
As a legal expert at the Court of Appeal, I have been called upon for more than 10 years to give my opinion on contentious cases, which are often delicate and require a meticulous and cautious approach, in order to give an impartial and documented opinion that can objectively enlighten the judge. This activity has taught me a lot, because if no one is bound to do the impossible, the doctor must constantly remember that he has an obligation of means and that he must do everything possible, including surrounding himself with other colleagues, to enable his patient to recover a satisfactory state of health in the best possible conditions.
How do you see the future?
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: My professional future is one of continuity but also of change.
Continuity in the practice of my speciality out of professional love and the desire to continue to be of service to the patients in my field of expertise. Change in the way I practice, with the choice of a less intensive work, in a multidisciplinary team, especially as there is now a tendency to fragment the specialty into sub-specialties, which means that a urologist today no longer practices the whole field of urology but only a part of it (oncology, lithiasis, women’s urology, andrology…).
Web 2.0 has turned the Internet into a tool for ranting and raving, which causes a lot of damage.
Jean-Pierre Giolitto: One could say that there is good and bad in web 2-0.
The good first and even the best with the easy and unlimited access and sharing of knowledge. For people of my generation, i.e. before the internet, it is a real revolution. The bad unfortunately with too much unverified, truncated, distorted, erroneous, cancelled and yet still apparent information. And then the world of opinion where any anonymous person, however profane in the matter gives a so-called opinion on what he does not know, without control and without contradictory. Anyone can have an opinion but expressing it requires reflection, argumentation and respect.