Skill Acquisition, Assessment, and Simulation in Minimal Access Surgery: An Evolution of Technical Training in Surgery

Remote and asynchronous training network: from a SAGES grant to an eight-country remote laparoscopic simulation training program

BACKGROUND

Limitations in surgical simulation training include lack of access to validated training programs with continuous year-round training and lack of experts' ongoing availability for feedback. A model of simulation training was developed to address these limitations. It incorporated basic and advanced laparoscopic skills curricula from a previously validated program and provided instruction through a digital platform. The platform allowed for remote and asynchronous feedback from a few trained instructors. The instructors were continuously available and provided personalized feedback using a variety of different media. We describe the upscaling of this model to teach trainees at fourteen centers in eight countries.

METHODS

Institutions with surgical programs lacking robust simulation curricula and needing instructors for ongoing education were identified. The simulation centers ("skills labs") at these sites were equipped with necessary simulation training hardware. A remote training-the-administrators (TTA) program was developed where personnel were trained in how to manage the skills lab, schedule trainees, set up training stations, and use the platform. A train-the-trainers (TTT) program was created to establish a network of trained instructors, who provided objective feedback through the platform remotely and asynchronously.

RESULTS

Between 2019 and 2022, seven institutions in Chile and one in each of the USA, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, México, and Perú implemented a digital platform-based remote simulation curriculum. Most administrators were not physicians (19/33). Eight Instructors were trained with the TTT program and became active proctors. The platform has been used by 369 learners, of whom 57% were general surgeons and general surgery residents. A total of 6729 videos, 28,711 feedback inputs, and 233.7 and 510.2 training hours in the basic and advanced programs, respectively, were registered.

CONCLUSION

A remote and asynchronous method of giving instruction and feedback through a digital platform has been effectively employed in the creation of a robust network of continuous year-round simulation-based training in laparoscopy. Training centers were successfully run only with trained administrators to assist in logistics and setup, and no on-site instructors were necessary.

LATIN AMERICAN RESIDENTS' SURGICAL EDUCATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC: WHAT STRATEGIES HAVE EMERGED FOR ADAPTING TO THIS NEW ERA?

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on surgical education in Latin America, decreasing residents' surgical training and supervised clinical practice.

AIMS

This study aimed to identify strategies that have been proposed or implemented to adapt surgical training and supervised clinical practice to COVID-19-related limitations in Latin America.

METHOD

A literature review was performed between April and May 2021, divided into two searches. The first one sought to identify adaptation strategies in Latin America for surgical training and supervised clinical practice. The second one was carried out as a complement to identify methodologies proposed in the rest of the world.

RESULTS

In the first search, 16 of 715 articles were selected. In the second one, 41 of 1,637 articles were selected. Adaptive strategies proposed in Latin America focused on videoconferencing and simulation. In the rest of the world, remote critical analysis of recorded/live surgeries, intrasurgical tele-mentoring, and surgery recording with postoperative feedback were suggested.

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple adaptation strategies for surgical education during the COVID-19 pandemic have been proposed in Latin America and the rest of the world. There is an opportunity to implement new strategies in the long term for surgical training and supervised clinical practice, although more prospective studies are required to generate evidence-based recommendations.

Speech-Based Surgical Phase Recognition for Non-Intrusive Surgical Skills' Assessment in Educational Contexts

Surgeons' procedural skills and intraoperative decision making are key elements of clinical practice. However, the objective assessment of these skills remains a challenge to this day. Surgical workflow analysis (SWA) is emerging as a powerful tool to solve this issue in surgical educational environments in real time. Typically, SWA makes use of video signals to automatically identify the surgical phase. We hypothesize that the analysis of surgeons' speech using natural language processing (NLP) can provide deeper insight into the surgical decision-making processes. As a preliminary step, this study proposes to use audio signals registered in the educational operating room (OR) to classify the phases of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). To do this, we firstly created a database with the transcriptions of audio recorded in surgical educational environments and their corresponding phase. Secondly, we compared the performance of four feature extraction techniques and four machine learning models to find the most appropriate model for phase recognition. The best resulting model was a support vector machine (SVM) coupled to a hidden-Markov model (HMM), trained with features obtained with Word2Vec (82.95% average accuracy). The analysis of this model's confusion matrix shows that some phrases are misplaced due to the similarity in the words used. The study of the model's temporal component suggests that further attention should be paid to accurately detect surgeons' normal conversation. This study proves that speech-based classification of LC phases can be effectively achieved. This lays the foundation for the use of audio signals for SWA, to create a framework of LC to be used in surgical training, especially for the training and assessment of procedural and decision-making skills (e.g., to assess residents' procedural knowledge and their ability to react to adverse situations).

Surgical residents' challenges with the acquisition of surgical skills in operating rooms: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION

Training in operating rooms is challenging. Specifically, surgical residents often experience a stressful environment in training arenas that, in turn, might affect their ability in the acquisition of the required qualifications. This study aims at the qualitative explanation of how the surgical residents acquire the surgical skills in operating rooms.

METHODS

This qualitative study was conducted in 2019-2020 using the conventional content analysis method. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected through 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Then, the interview transcriptions were analyzed in MaxQDA2 software using the content analysis method.

RESULTS

The data were classified into two main categories, namely challenges/obstacles and strategies for dealing with the challenges. The data in the first category were further classified into four subcategories, including burnout, confusion in technique selection, unequal learning opportunities, ignorance, and responsibility misassignment. Similarly, four subcategories of establishing communication channels with chief residents and faculty members, learning by the non-surgeon pathway, covert progress in the learning path, and taking advantage of force from a position of power in the learning path were considered for the second category.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings of the study, surgical residents face serious challenges and obstacles in their training course. To address these challenges, the curriculum of the surgical course needs to be improved with the emphasis on the balanced responsibility assignment and enhanced human communication.

The Fun Factor: Does Serious Gaming Affect the Volume of Voluntary Laparoscopic Skills Training?

Background

The availability of validated laparoscopic simulators has not resulted in sustainable high-volume training. We investigated whether the validated laparoscopic serious game Underground would increase voluntary training by residents. We hypothesized that by removing intrinsic barriers and extrinsic barriers, residents would spend more time on voluntary training with Underground compared to voluntary training with traditional simulators.

Methods

After 1 year, we compared amount of voluntary time spent on playing Underground to time spent on all other laparoscopic training modalities and to time spent on performing laparoscopic procedures in the OR for all surgical residents. These data were compared to resident’ time spent on laparoscopic activities over the prior year before the introduction of Underground.

Results

From March 2016 until March 2017, 63 residents spent on average 20 min on voluntary serious gaming, 17 min on voluntary simulator training, 2 h and 44 min on mandatory laparoscopic training courses, and 14 h and 49 min on laparoscopic procedures in the OR. Voluntary activities represented 3% of laparoscopic training activities which was similar in the prior year wherein fifty residents spent on average 33 min on voluntary simulator training, 3 h and 28 min on mandatory laparoscopic training courses, and 11 h and 19 min on laparoscopic procedures.

Conclusion

Serious gaming has not increased total voluntary training volume. Underground did not mitigate intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to voluntary training. Mandatory, scheduled training courses remain needed. Serious gaming is flexible and affordable and could be an important part of such training courses.