Doctors from around the world are waiting in line to spend two days at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, the only place they can learn to use their new arms to perform heart valve surgeries.

The arms belong to an ambidextrous robot named da Vinci. With its motherboards, computer chips, pedals and levers, the da Vinci Surgical System is part of a quiet revolution in surgery. Through its tiny grasping clamps and ability to move like a human wrist, it is enabling surgeons to complete life-saving procedures while seated about six feet away from the patient at a computerized console.

While the race for technology rushes on, so does the run for publicity. When doctors from Duke, Harvard, Columbia-Presbyterian in New York and other institutions snare headlines for surgical breakthroughs, they fail to mention they trained at ECU.

No matter. They’re still taking their lead from the Brody School of Medicine. Although barely into adolescence — the first class graduated in 1981 — the medical school is reshaping medical history by taking technology into the most inner reaches of the heart.

Bringing doctors up to speed is the job of alumnus Dr. L. Wiley Nifong, director of surgical robotics and surgical research for the Brody School of Medicine and a 1990 graduate of the school.

Nifong, who grew up on the banks of Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde County, N.C., feels strong ties to the East and once hoped to make a difference here.

He never imagined he’d make a difference around the world.