Mastering minimally invasive esophagectomy requires a mentor; experience of a personal mentorship

•Not all residency programs include a teaching program with the guidance of dedicated mentors.•Teaching minimally invasive surgery requires a mentor.•A dedicated team should be set up for learning new minimally invasive techniques.

Since the first laparoscopic procedure, there has been an steady increase in advanced minimally invasive surgery. These procedures include oncological colorectal, hepatobiliary and upper gastrointestinal surgery. Implementation of these procedures requires different and new skills for the surgeons who wish to perform these procedures. To accomplish this surgical teaching program, a mentorship seems the most ideal method to teach the apprentice surgeon these specific skills.At the VU medical center a teaching program for a minimally-invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer started in 2009. At first it started in different centers in the Netherlands and later on we also started mentoring other institutes throughout Europe, Latin America and India.In this article we describe our experience and the outcomes of this mentorship in advanced minimally invasive surgery.