IRCAD (Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l’Appareil Digestif-Research Institute against Digestive Cancer) was founded in 1994 in Strasbourg, France by Prof. Jacques Marescaux a surgeon fascinated by technology. IRCAD has since become world leader in advancing and teaching minimally invasive surgery.

IRCAD main focus has always been to develop less invasive surgery techniques through research led by the IRCAD research and development team in collaboration with IRCAD surgeons and share those techniques at an international level via training courses.

Always driven by innovation, IRCAD embraced digital technology very early on with the creation in 2000 of WebSurg- IRCAD free online university. Through Websurg, IRCAD broadcast courses regularly and has now over 404,844 members from around the world.

In addition to its digital expansion, since its inception in Strasbourg, IRCAD has expanded worldwide by opening mirror centers around the globe; first expansion was in Asia with IRCAD Taiwan 2008 followed by two centers in Latin America one center opened in 2011 in São Paulo and another in 2017 in Rio de Janeiro both in Brazil. More recently in 2019, a branch of IRCAD opened in Lebanon. The Lebanon branch works closely with IRCAD France and holds live diffusions of surgeries conducted in France. IRCAD Africa is set to open its doors to trainings in 2021 followed by IRCAD China in 2022.