I attended a tailor-made 5-day course “Transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice” in March 2010. This was by far the best course I’ve ever had. I came with limited micro-surgical skills, but in just a few days I succeeded in performing a very complicated operation. This had never been possible without René’s vast experience and calm teaching style. His surgical capability exceeds anything I have ever seen and he manages to share his knowledge in a highly enthusiastic yet comfortable way. We worked hard, focused, and concentrated in a working environment filled with laughter, praise, jokes, and inspirational conversation. René is not only a super-surgeon but also a wonderful human being with a lot of life experience to learn from. I came with a lot of problems surgical as well as practical and René came with many possible solutions both in regards to anesthesia, analgesia, setup problems, experimental design, etc. For me personally, this course has saved months of hard work and given me a much better experimental setup as well as made me a better surgeon. Thank you, René !!!

The two things that become immediately apparent when following one of Prof. Remie’s courses on experimental microsurgery is his quiet passion for the best possible quality of work and his constant insistence on ”goal orientation”. Later, the participant realizes that this gentle perfectionism roots in a wide-ranging knowledge of anatomy, practical experiences with various animal models, comparative physiology, and anaesthesiology. His teaching can be described as ”interactive ex-cathedra” with an engaging presentational style and seamless transitions between slide-based information and practical, CCTV-based demo’s. Despite the more traditional format, it is complemented with a genuine empathy not only for his students but also for the experimental animals, the former combined with shrewd psychological insights. We were all encouraged to submit, in advance, our different areas of interest and the themes we wanted to figure prominently in the course. This made for widely different subjects of teaching. Prof. Remie’s teaching is nevertheless so accomplished that he manages to interact individually with each student in different ways to expose him/her to the toughest possible challenge whilst, at the same time, pushing for the best possible response. This in itself is an accomplishment of the first order, made even more remarkable by the fact that the class I attended had extremely different starting competencies. The gems of theoretical and practical knowledge that he freely shares with you never feel pedantic but the relevant facts are mentioned at the appropriate moments in a way that you’d wished you should have known this all along. ”Forschung und Lehre”, said that giant of pre-Darwinian science, Alexander, Freiherr von Humboldt. The ”Lehre” is without question already in an elite league of its own; the ”Forschung”, one discovers later, are his own extremely interesting and important contributions to lab animal science in particular and operative methods in general. In …

Prof. Remie is an oracle of animal science. For me, he achieves balancing the complexities of the many aspects of surgery, without overloading you with information, while adding warmth and a touch of humour in his delivery, along with the occasional well-placed anecdote. I have yet to meet anyone with such a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of anatomy and surgery combined with the experience of in vivo research. His teaching style is direct, yet never condescending, and he is a master of patience, which means you always get the answer you need to whichever question you might want to ask about a technique you are learning. Moreover, not only is Prof. Remie a font of knowledge, but he is also eager to provide pertinent research papers and equipment/consumable catalogues for reading around the techniques and establishing your own surgical setup. Throughout the course, Prof. Remie was always quick to demonstrate his care for the animals, in terms of adequate anaesthesia, analgesia and asepsis, as well as the benefits of establishing good surgical technique to minimise unnecessary injury and reduce the number of animals required to obtain results for one’s research. One of Prof. Remie’s tenets is to be goal-oriented: once I had exhausted the queries I had about the ins and outs of the techniques I was learning, it was possible, in the latter stages of the course to fully appreciate the benefits of being focused on your surgical objective. I was glad to have chosen the 5-day course option as this allowed me to get a handle on the core course techniques as well as have a good opportunity to become confident with my custom program of blood pressure telemetry probe implantation and LAD ligation. I left the course with more than I had anticipated; learning extra skills and …

I completed two training modules at RRSSC and only thanks to René, I dare to call myself a veterinary surgeon. Owing to René’s unmatched surgical skills, inextinguishable enthusiasm for teaching, patience with inexperienced students, top level course programs and technical facilities, I learned everything I needed to run a high standard veterinary clinic. This includes good surgical practice – Halsted principles, perioperative care, pain management and respecting animal welfare – as well as state of the art surgical techniques that will introduce major improvements in veterinary medicine. Finally, I could dispose of numerous “bad habits” and replace them by “good behavior” in the operation theatre. Therefore I warmly recommend the RRSSC training to all veterinary practitioners; what is more, I think this training is a must for anyone who performs or plans to perform surgery.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to attend your Module B surgical course. I enjoyed it very much! It was very informative and I came away with detailed knowledge, to help me perform MI in my institute. The class and surgical room where great, the presentation of the material was easy to comprehend and follow. You did brilliant job with sharing theory as well as practical skills. I was impressed with the organisation of the course. Everything from transport to meals was very well planned. I also enjoyed meeting your family and heaving meal with them. My knowledge about MI surgery was very limited before the course. In only 5 days I learned a lot. This and the materials provided, will be a big help with starting MI in my institute.

I attended the 5 days-module B course in May 2016 and would warmly recommend this course to anyone wanting to improve their surgical skills and knowledge in microsurgery. The technical facilities were great, the teacher (René) was excellent and the course program was well thought of. I learned so much during these 5 days – including good surgical practice, choosing the right equipment, asepsis, anesthesia and excellent surgical techniques that will introduce major improvements at our facility. I never thought I would be able to do the jugular and femoral vein catheterization, but René just said “of course, you will”, and I did! He is an calm and encouraging educator with endless knowledge about everything related to microsurgery (I especially enjoyed the anecdotes about Halsted and the other “big guys”). René and his wife are very welcoming and you will feel like home in their excellent care. I hope I will get the change to come back and attend another excellent course RRSSC!

I attended the ABS-course at the RRSSC in September 2016. It was probably the most informative course I have been on in my academic career to-date. There was only a small group of us on the course which was great and meant we could ask all the questions we needed. The ability of attendees was very wide, ranging from myself (complete beginner with catheter surgery) to some who had 18 years’ experience in the field. Despite this we all received the specialist training we required which was brilliant. Great course, great value for money and good fun! Would definitely recommend training at this surgical skills centre!

Prof Remie’s insulin clamp course was excellent and really surpassed my expectations. In short I left feeling fully prepared to set up the technique in my home lab. This has been borne out with early surgical success (in terms of catheterisation) and enough know how to begin to run the clamp experiments themselves. The two course leads provide an incomparable set of skills. Prof Remie lends his years of knowledge and expertise in the surgical techniques (bilateral carotid and jugular indwelling lines) and his training facility is fantastic (beautifully equipped and excellent visuals). Dr Nielsen’s clamp expertise are very much linked to the Vanderbilt standards, but he himself has spent many years perfecting the technique in Copenhagen and so he brings both sound technical advice but also expert knowhow (and lots of tips to avoid set up obstacles). Both teachers have been responsive to subsequent questions. The course materials were extremely comprehensive.

Anyone who wishes to develop microsurgical skills could benefit from this course. It offers a very nice introduction to the exciting world of microsurgery.

I had a great 3 days (radio telemetry) course and learned a lot. I would really hope to be able to come for the microsurgery and experimental technique course at some point in the future.