CHI Memorial will formally announce a partnership with the Hixson High Future Ready Institute healthcare program on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. The announcement program will begin in the Hixson High Little Theater and conclude in the healthcare instructional area. The ceremony will involve administration and students from Hixson High School, CHI Memorial representatives, district administrators, and leaders in the Future Ready Institute program for Hamilton County Schools.
CHI Memorial will have the da Vinci robotic surgical system on-site to allow students to get hands-on experience with the high-tech surgical equipment. The da Vinci system and demonstrations will be held in the healthcare program area.
Hixson High School students will have the opportunity to sit at the controls of the da Vinci Surgical System and perform a simulated robot-assisted surgery. It’s the same system many surgeons at CHI Memorial use in the operating room. C. Lee Jackson, M.D., robotic prostate surgeon and surgery service line medical director at CHI Memorial, will work with the students as they sit at the surgeon’s controls for a simulated procedure. The students will experience the da Vinci system’s magnified 3D high-definition vision system and tiny wrist-like instruments that bend and rotate far greater than the human hand.
"The Hixson program will become known as the CHI Memorial Institute of Healthcare and Medical Careers to become the latest Future Ready Institute in Hamilton County Schools to join with a prominent local business or organization to prepare graduates for success after graduation," officials said. "Future Ready Institutes challenge the traditional approach to education in high schools by developing career-themed small learning communities inside a high school. Themes include medicine, robotics, forensic science, engineering, hospitality, technology, business, marketing and more. Teachers of all content areas, including English, math, science and social studies, work closely with the career theme teacher to provide classroom instruction through the lens of a career. The goal is for students to clearly understand why a lesson is important and how they will use the information in the future."