Instructor Station for Virtual Laparoscopic Surgery: Requirements and Design

A. Gande and V. Devarajan (USA)

Keywords

Laparoscopic trainers, human computer interaction applications, configuration tool, performance evaluation, instructor station, after action review

Abstract

An important component of a virtual reality based surgical simulator is the instructor and the expertise he brings to the training. It is desirable to automate to the extent possible, the tasks of the instructor as he monitors the training of multiple residents. We propose an instructor station which will automate some of the instructor tasks. Instructor stations in flight simulators are well known and have proven their effectiveness. We compare our instructor station design with a typical "Instructor Operator Station for Flight Simulator" from which we learnt the lessons to build our own baseline station. Our Instructor station will allow the instructor to configure the training system in the correct sequence of easy to hard lessons. It will also allow the instructor to introduce typical abnormalities during surgery in order to train the residents on emergency procedures. The Instructor station will be able to evaluate and monitor the resident's performance based on the specifications mentioned on a typical "Global Rating Scale of Operative Performance" and generate training effectiveness reports. It will guide the student by providing feedback which contains the errors he made in the surgery and show a "gold standard" for comparison. In this paper, we present the design and implementation issues in building our instructor station.

Important Links:



Go Back