About this Site

daVinciStories.com is a collection of first-hand accounts from patients who chose minimally invasive da Vinci® Surgery.

• Intuitive Surgical, maker of the da Vinci® Surgical System, offers no compensation in return for story submissions. Patients submit stories voluntarily.
• We strive for accurate representation of patient experiences and will post content whether favorable or unfavorable to Intuitive Surgical.
• We review all submissions. The purpose of review is to ensure that procedures discussed are “on-label” – meaning the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the treatment(s) discussed; that privacy of friends and family is protected; to ensure that stories are about da Vinci procedures and to ensure content is appropriate for a general audience.
• We contact the patient authors when we have questions or need clarification. In some instances, we check with the surgeon to ensure clinical and medical accuracy. We edit stories for spelling, grammar, clarity and to comply with applicable privacy laws.
• We will not post content referring to off-label procedures (ones that the FDA has not cleared). We will not post content that we consider offensive, inaccurate or out of context. We will not post stories that contain the private health information of friends, family or acquaintances without express written permission.
• We do not publish links to other web sites, email addresses or phone numbers. We remove such references from stories.
• We encourage patients to submit a photo so that other patients can more easily relate to the author. We will not post photos of individuals other than the author without a signed release.
• Once received, we review and post stories within 4-6 weeks. We notify patients and their surgeons via email when their story is posted.

Stories are collected from past patients in full respect of regulatory requirements under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), per our Personal Consent and Release and Terms of Service.