ERUS started out as the European Robotic Urology Symposium, organised by Intuitive in Paris 2004. Together with the faculty of the first three editions, ERUS became an independent scientific society in 2007, headed up by Prof. Mottrie. In 2014, ERUS became an EAU Section, holding its 11th meeting in Amsterdam.
Prof. Alexandre Mottrie was the founding chairman and led ERUS between 2007 and 2021. He was also present in Florence for ERUS23 and reflected on how far the Section had come:
“ERUS started as purely a commercial symposium for both robotics and laparoscopy. In 2007, when it was my turn to organise the meeting in Belgium, I suggested we needed an independent scientific group to be responsible for drawing up the scientific programme. That was the start of ERUS as a society.”
“When making the step to join the EAU in 2014, I felt that having a single European society would be a strength. Competing against another EAU Section would divide robotics and halt our progress. We wanted to add our expertise to the EAU and grow under the wider EAU umbrella. Of course the EAU has a worldwide reach and huge membership, allowing us to do much more than if we’d stayed independent.”
“Ten years later, we can say that it was absolutely essential to our success. Without joining in 2014, we would have probably died a slow death as a society. We’ve accomplished so much in terms of training and standardisation, creating the first validated robotic curriculum in the world. Now, around the world, you see different ERUS-like societies coming up. If they want to stay independent, they will not last. My advice to them is: work together with national or continental societies like we have.”
