Skills Training with Simulators
Procedure simulators support practice of surgical tasks, from camera control, to grasping and clipping, to conducting a procedure such as excision of an ectopic pregnancy. We conducted training sessions, as shown above. LeRoy Heinrichs worked with ob-gyn and other residents to understand the process of training with simulators, and the technical and pedagogic issues that may arise.
Watch LeRoy Heinrichs discussing his work.
Performance score in simulation tasks
Surgical simulators have embedded metrics such as time taken and path length of tool, many of which do not capture the overall performance of the task. We developed a statistical tool to evaluate performance scores for criterion-based training with simulators.
We, in collaboration with the Society for Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, developed a collaborative, formal study for acquiring benchmark data for criterion-based training of basic technical surgical skills with five widely-used training simulators. Seventeen laparoscopic surgeons spent three half-days learning to use the simulators, and collecting data from which Performance Scores (on 4th-attempt data) could be rigorously calculated. Scores are a linear weighted sum of the results from metrics embedded in the simulator, and are of the form b0 + b1.X1 + b2.X2 + . . . + bk.Xk. The coefficients, b0, b1,. . . bk, are adjusted for each task, using a linear regression process, to generate a performance score for each task that improves from a value of 50 on the first attempt and asymptotes to 100. Fourth attempt data, using this score, was determined to be an accurate predictor of a subject's performance. This statistical method will be a valuable tool for evaluating performance scores for subsequent studies of networked simulators.