SBIR/STTR Award attributes
ABSTRACTThe aim of this proposal is to designdevelopand validate Virtual Rotator Cuff Arthroscopic Skill TrainerViRCASTto virtually simulate arthroscopic rotator cuff repair surgery and perform extensive validation studies to demonstrate its effectiveness as a training platformThe platform will provide safe training environment to reduce training time for acquisition of necessary skills and provide objective skill learning process with quantitative measuresThe ViRCAST will incorporate structured and customized learninge gtrainee specific learningwhich is expected to improve traineeandapos s psychomotor skills while providing cognitive feedbackIt will also assist training with increasing difficulty scenariosWe hypothesize that the proposed platform would significantly improve training with deliberate and individual specific learningViRCAST will be unique and innovative by incorporatingHigh fidelity visualization of the bonetissueand instrumentsrealistic physics based soft tissue and bone interactions with instruments and fluid and electrocautery simulationphysics based tissue and bone haptictouchsensation during the bone shaving and cleaning tasksuse of actual instruments with hardware interfacessimulation of knot tying taskscognitive skill training on various difficulty settingsrigorous validation studiese gcontentconcurrentdiscriminantdeliberate learning assessmentwith human subjectsObjective metrics derived from the clinical practice andpersonalization in training to detect and eliminate the deficiencies and bad habitsViRCAST will incorporate personalized traininge gdeliberate learningthat will pinpoint traineesandaposskill deficiencies and aim to improve their skill levelsThe ViRCAST will be providing standardizedquantified feedback for evaluation and self assessment by measuringathe accuracy and smoothness of surgeonsandaposhand movementshand eye coordinationbaccuracy of the applied proceduree ganchor angledistribution of knotsdrilling depthcaccidental damage or errorse ginjuring anatomical structuresdperformance in conducting a specific task within the surgerye ghemostasis durationandecognitive decision making process for the complex scenariosWith such a novel training technologyit will also be possible to track traineesandaposperformance trends over time and personalize the training sequence by creating dynamic scenes to improve traineesandaposdeficiency areas PROJECT NARRATIVE We propose a virtual arthroscopic skill trainer for rotator cuff surgery that will help surgical residents in skill and knowledge acquisition in a deliberate and trainee specific learning environmentThe proposed trainer will provide various modalities such as physics based interactive simulationrealistic visualization and haptic feedbackWe will perform facecontentconstructand discriminant validation studies as well as deliberate and individual specific learning assessment tests to establish effectiveness of our simulator in arthroscopy training
