Virtual Reality Lab Enhances Surgeons' Skills

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Article Date: 16 Sep 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Virtual reality is making Dr. Angela Gucwa a better surgeon. Before she goes into the operating room, she spends several hours a week honing her skills in the Medical College of Georgia Virtual Education and Surgical Simulation Laboratory.

"You become familiar with a lot of the different instruments," says Dr. Gucwa, a second-year surgical resident. "I think it really helps with patient care and comfort, especially in things like the GI Mentor where you're practicing upper [gastrointestinal] endoscopy and colonoscopies. The familiarity in terms of placement of the scope really helps when you're ready to actually perform those procedures on patients."

The lab, directed by Dr. Michael Edwards, has models that teach residents basic surgical skills such as reconnecting two ends of the intestine or blood vessels. It also has virtual reality simulators that teach depth perception, eye-hand coordination and camera operation.

"It's real important that (residents) practice with these models, and it's true with anything that the more they do something, the better they'll become at it," says Dr. Bruce MacFadyen, chair of the Department of Surgery.

Residents follow a curriculum Dr. Edwards developed that allows them to learn techniques such as closing incisions, placing chest tubes, tying knots, repairing bowel injuries and performing endoscopic and laparoscopic procedures.

They also watch video presentations on surgeries and procedures and are tested on how much they learned. Finally, residents can conduct research to see how the simulators benefit them.

"The important part of the curriculum and lab is that it will increase the expertise of the residents, making them more proficient as they do open operations and endoscopic and laparoscopic cases," says Dr. Edwards, gastrointestinal surgeon and assistant professor. "We'll have residents who are better trained and have [better] skills, meaning when they go to the operating room, they can operate faster, more efficiently and safer."

"I think this has been one of the most important things to happen in our department in the past several years, and I'm particularly excited about what Dr. Edwards has done in the area of curriculum," says Dr. John Mellinger, section chief of gastrointestinal surgery.

The lab and curriculum put MCG ahead of the curve in a nationwide trend. In 2009, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the national organization that accredits residency programs, will mandate that all accredited surgical residency programs have a skills facility to train surgical residents before they perform in the operating room.

"There are only a few programs across the country that currently have some degree of a skills facility, and even less have the necessary curriculum components," Dr. Edwards says. "We have both: a proficiency-based skills curriculum with a well-equipped lab to support it."

The lab and curriculum also should help the Department of Surgery gain accreditation from the American College of Surgeons as an ACS Education Institute.

"This type of accreditation will put us in the position to be a regional resource, not only for resident and student education, but for practicing and training physicians as well as allied health care professionals who can use the lab at MCG as a continuing education venue to learn new techniques," says Dr. Mellinger.

"And the recognition may lend itself to additional financial support through educational training grants or research grants," adds Dr. Edwards. "Overall, this will be more cost-effective for the hospital. More importantly, it will be safer for the patient."

https://my.mcg.edu/portal/page/portal/56EE9B2C0EC9316EE0440003BAD149FF

The MP3 is available here.

The Medical College of Georgia is the state's health sciences university and includes the Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing. MCG is a unit of the University System of Georgia and an equal opportunity institution.

Medical College of Georgia