Houston Healthcare holds naming contest for da Vinci system

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — With three units in total, two already named Cookie and Monster respectively, Houston Healthcare chose to involve local children in the naming process for their latest da Vinci Surgical System on their Warner Robins Campus, running a contest that began earlier this year. Now, after narrowing down a wave of submissions, the hospital has chosen a fun and familiar name for the newest member of the da Vinci fleet.

The contest officially began in August after Houston Healthcare met with the Houston County School District and worked out a game plan in July. There, they decided to involve students in third through fifth grade. The hospital opened up the contest to five schools in Warner Robins: Quail Run Elementary School, Lake Joy Elementary School, Hilltop Elementary School, David Perdue Elementary School and Bonaire Elementary School.

At each school, teachers showed their students an educational video provided by the hospital and gathered name suggestions for the da Vinci System. Final suggestions were submitted to the school district on Sept. 13 and the hospital’s marketing team began working to narrow down the ideas to 25 finalists after receiving hundreds of submissions.

Students could submit any name they wanted; Knowing the system’s existing names were based around Sesame Street, children provided many names that were also from the show. Other ideas also included robotic and healthcare based names, as well as military-themed names stemming from Robins Air Force Base.

“It seems like they really enjoyed it. They gave some very clever names and we got a lot of response,” Houston Healthcare Marketing and Communications Manager Eden Tomberlin said.

The Surgical Services team had the final say in the new robot’s name, and after much deliberation, they picked Elmo, saying they liked how it fit with the already existing Sesame Street theme. 34 students submitted Elmo for the system’s name.

On Nov. 28, the hospital’s President and CEO Charles Briscoe visited each school and spoke to the winners on the importance of STEM. Each student won a signed certificate, a robot toy and a photo of the surgical system with the name proudly plastered on.

Brailyn Tomlin, a fourth-grade student at Quail Run, won the grand prize by random drawing: a robot building kit and a chance to see the da Vinci System in person and meet members of the surgical team.

Tomberlin said the contest was an opportunity to get children excited about science and technology, adding the hospital has hosted events for student groups to test drive the da Vinci System.

“This was just something fun that we could do with a younger group of people to get the kids involved. I mean, robots are cool and kids love robots. So it was just a way to get them excited about something and then we benefited from letting them name it,” Tomberlin said.

In the future, Houston Healthcare plans to partner with 21st Century Partnership to bring a da Vinci Robot and simulator to the Museum of Aviation’s STEM City Event in 2024.

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