In June 2018, I had the great pleasure to take part in a course organized by RRSSC and Primetech on the implantation of iPrecio mini pumps into the blood vessels of mice and rats. Thanks to Rene’s valuable tips and perfectly organized training, I have almost immediately performed the procedure of the jugular and femoral vein catheterization in mice and rats. Something that previously seemed to be impossible for me. With the help of René, it took around 20 minutes to get the catheter into the vessel of choice. René is a very hospitable man with a passion for science and I admire and appreciate his great knowledge. He can talk about animals, their anatomy, and pharmacology so that the listener can not get away from the lecture. I definitely recommend everyone to come to Almere and take part in one of these rodent training courses.

I recently attended the Module C 5-day microsurgical course specialising in radiotelemetry implantation at René Remie Surgical Skills Centre.  I would highly recommend any of the courses available to anyone who is looking to begin or improve upon microsurgical techniques in vivo.  The facilities at the RRSSC were fantastic; I was genuinely surprised at how much I gained from the course.  Prof. Remie has extensive knowledge of not only surgical techniques, but also anaesthesia, asepsis and anatomy, not to mention his historical knowledge on the subject!  Having come from a background of some limited surgical experience I found this course extremely helpful. I came away not only feeling competent in the cannulation skills I had learnt throughout the week, but I was also given a lot of useful information to take back to my lab.  The course is incredibly well organised, with each programme being tailored to your individual needs.  Prof. Remie is very approachable should you have any questions (there were many), and really goes out of his way to inform his students of as much as possible, without the feeling of being overwhelmed at all.

The course (November 2013) run by René and Delphine was really excellent. I would highly recommend it particularly for someone like me with no previous surgical experience. The course content was pitched at the right level and communicated extremely well. The balance between theory and practice was excellent and I really felt that I learned so much within such a short time. My goal was to learn the skin transplant model but I exceed my expectations and the additional skills learned, for example, the catheterization of a number of vessels will open possibilities in our research that were not previously considered. René was a wonderful host and an excellent teacher. The course was extremely relaxed and enjoyable.

I attended an adapted 3-day course from 25th to 27th April 2012. It will help me a lot in my future research work. I am a general surgeon and worked in clinics for about 8 years. I also performed animal experiments before, such as partial hepatectomy, intra portal vein transplantation, hepatocytes isolation. I could do these animal experiments, but I still had some questions. I needed to improve my skills in animal surgery to do them perfectly. I took my questions (and also my colleague’s questions) to René’s course. René taught me by himself. He has more than 30 years of experience in animal experiments and microsurgery. I realized that we could improve our animal experiments with the teacher’s instructions and make them more perfect. In a short period of time, we learned all kinds of tricks from him. I also learned some microsurgical techniques. I would like to suggest, that the M.D./ Ph.D. students or postdocs who want to learn and improve the animal experimentation skills should come to René. You will get an excellent course from him.

In April 2012 I had the pleasure of attending a course in microsurgical techniques at René Remie Surgical Skills Centre in Almere, The Netherlands. This was an experience that by far exceeded all my expectations. René is a wonderful person with a passion to teach others the amazing microsurgical techniques he is mastering to perfection. René has a way of making everyone around him in a good mood and at the same time push you forward as hard as possible to make you learn far more than you thought possible in a 5-day course. The program for the course will be modified specially to your needs in a way to facilitate the steepest learning curve I have ever experienced. One of the mantras René will say over and over again is to work “Goal Oriented” when performing microsurgery and this is something he also uses in his way of teaching, there was a clear goal for my course and René did everything possible for me to reach it without wasting any time at all on unnecessary things. I managed to reach my goal and surpass it, that is as with everything else René does he always seems to reach the goal with perfect results and a smile on his face. Thank you very much for a wonderful experience in your Surgical Skills Centre.

This is a letter to explain what the René Remie microsurgery course has meant in my career. First of all, I am writing this letter because I feel I must be grateful to this awesome professor. I also should apologize for my English, it is not the best and I am not sure if I will be able to explain all the things I want to explain but I am going to try it. I am a young Spanish orthopedic surgeon. I would like to become a hand surgeon and as a hand surgeon, you should be trained in microsurgical skills. I attended a five-day microsurgery course last February and it has been a great and wonderful experience!! You are trained personally and under the close supervision of professor Remie. First of all, I just can say that this is an absolutely recommendable experience for someone that looks for training in microsurgery. You find in professor Remie an incredible person that makes you feel like working at home, receiving theoretical classes, and performing surgeries. He corrects you every moment but allows you time to perform surgeries. I did epineural nerve anastomoses, end-to-end and end-to-side anastomoses of arteries and veins even performing some surgeries like portacaval shunt. He shows you how something that you thought you will not be able to do (because I thought at the beginning that I was not going to be able to perform such wonderful things in just five days) can be accomplished in a very easy way. Every day that you are taken to the next step, being corrected in all the ways and, at the same time, he tells you tricks to be faster and do the surgeries in the most perfect way. You will get from him all the answers you need. In …

I attended a 5-day course at the RRSSC in February 2012 and found it both hugely challenging and rewarding. I gained lots of practical experience and really enjoyed the lectures. I thought I had significant knowledge on the subject before attending the course but the quality and depth of teaching on the course made the whole subject make much more sense to me. What particularly impressed me about the course (and Professor Remie) was the breadth of teaching from the simple to the complex. By the end of the course I was happy that I had been able to learn about everything that I had wanted to (and more besides). A fantastic course – I would sincerely recommend this course to both surgeons and Biomedical scientists.

From my experience on the 3-day radiotelemetry course, I would absolutely recommend this, or indeed any of the courses to anyone, to those with plenty of in vivo experience as much as those with only a little. The breadth and depth of René’s skill and know-how and his ability to get key messages across are second to none, all within a friendly atmosphere conducive to asking questions, promoting discussions and getting the right help at the right time. A thoroughly excellent course.

René Remie is watching you!” That Is the feeling I still have during my operations…although my 3-day-radio-telemetry course was already 2 months ago! When I started the course I thought that I would never ever learn how to implant a catheter in the carotid artery of a mouse without killing the animal. And now?! It takes me less than 10 minutes until the catheter is fixed in the artery without any loss of blood and the animals are running around in their cage a few hours later. I had to learn not to lose my ease of mind during the surgical training and I always had and still have the voice of René Remie in my mind that takes me back to the important things that I have to pay attention to. I think that he has the feeling to treat every kind of person in the right way to bring him/her to their own personal goal. I also learned a lot about microsurgical suture materials and techniques, ECG- and Blood pressure-measurement, radio telemetry, anesthesia, asepsis, and anatomy. In the end, I can say it was the best way to learn about these microsurgical techniques and I can just recommend everyone who wants to work in a proper and perfect way to take part in one of his courses!

I recently attended a Microsurgical Course run by Professor René Remie at the Surgical Skills Centre in Almere Stad, Netherlands where I received first class training in microsurgical techniques performed on the Rat using a Leica Microscope. The operating station was set up to a high quality and there were many books and papers available for reference. I was initially trained on a ‘Latex rubber’ Rat complemented with lectures received in the morning each day on all other subjects relevant to surgery such as Equipment, Anaesthesia, Asepsis and Anatomy that was demonstrated on a larger than life anatomical rat model. This gave me the background training required so that I could then proceed to undertake the techniques that I had learnt ‘In-Vivo’. Professor René Remie was extremely helpful and friendly and would demonstrate any technique specifically requested. I would recommend that anyone working in the scientific field who is interested in performing surgery or is currently performing surgery on Laboratory Animals should definately attend this course. They will obtain many new ideas with a wealth of information as I did. René’s skilled teaching on the art of performing microsurgery combined with his huge concern for animal welfare enabled me to receive the best training and to become proficient on my required specialist techniques by the end of the course.